Descendants: Coven
by PBWritesStuff
Summary: "I have a plan to take over Auradon - without war, and without our parents." (Mal never took the wand, and they conquered Auradon in a much more subtle way.) "Oh, I get it." Evie practically purred. "We'll make a coven."
1. Author's Note

Hello lovely readers! I made an entirely separate author's note, because there's a lot to explain before we dive right in.

Firstly, this is an AU that begins after the end of the first movie. Like my last Descendants story, it's also very dark, and some of the Auradon kids are converted to the 'dark side' so to speak. Good and Evil are used as labels, just like in the movies and books, but most of the characters acknowledge that morality isn't ever that simple. That said, this story has a mostly-fair/not-insane Maleficent, inspired by the live action film. She's stillbad, but she doesn't enjoy kicking puppies or doing bad things for the sake of cruelty. We'll see how having a half decent parent affects Mal and the others (whose parents are more or less the same.)

The main pairing will be Ben/Mal/Evie, but because the plot centers around Mal as something of a cult leader, it's alsosomewhatMal/Everyone. There are a lot of complex and diverse pairings in this story, so if that turns you off, consider yourself warned. That said, there will be multiple peoplewithmultiple people, but it won't be the source of drama (for the most part). Like most teenagers, the kids haven't fully settled into their adult selves yet, and their emotions and desires change with their hormones. That all gets even more complicated when VKs come into the picture, who view sexuality in a very different way from the Auradon kids! (That said, there arenoexplicit sexual scenes in this story, just sauciness and discussion.)

As I'm fond of pointing out, the books show a much darker canon than the movies, so I'm largely using the books as a basis, except where they contradict themselves (like when the Evil Queen somehow finds a way to throw a feast for Evie's birthday when the only food they have comes over expired) or for the sake of a better story (like Hadie being a transgender girl and how the VKs met).

Finally, this story has religious overtones and occult themes. The characters' viewpoints on those things aren't necessarily my own!

I'malso telling this story in a way that alternates the present day (which begins at the end of the first movie), with flashbacks (exploring how things went differently in this universe, and how things stayed the same).

If you're still reading this, thanks for giving it a shot! Enjoy!

- **Phoebe**

(PS: Many thanks to everyone who voted on the cover! I ended up with a three-way tie, so I made some compromises.)


	2. Prologue

Blessed are the powerful, for they shall be reverenced among men."   
  
\- Anton LeVay   
  


* * *

  
Ben was ten years old when his father first showed him the magic map.  
  
"It isn't really meant to be seen by anyone outside the Isle Council." His father had explained. "But I think an exception can be made for the heir to Auradon."  
  
(He was going to be king one day, he was going to rule them all, and the Isle was part of his domain, like King Mufasa had once said: "All that the light touches.")  
  
"Who are we going to observe, Papa?" Ben had asked, and the king chuckled warmly.  
  
"Map, show me Gaston." Adam commanded, and immediately, there was footage of the man himself, the man whom his father had told him about since birth.  
  
His villain.  
  
(The man who'd wanted to marry his mother, who'd blackmailed his grandfather, who'd gathered an angry mob to kill the beast)  
  
The man was just a drunkard now, with a pretty, young wife, who looked frazzled beyond her years. She was bouncing a baby on her hip, and watching two more play on the floor as her husband fitfully dozed. Ben noticed his father's anger, the tension in his neck and the strain of his shoulders, the way he still looked at his villain with such hatred, even after all these years. Ben saw the shabby home and both parents with rings under their eyes. He saw the concrete floor with no wood or even a cheap rug, with empty bottles scattered around, and the children who had no toys, stacking smooth pebbles on the floor as hunting hounds barked outside in the yard. He felt only pity.  
  
"Now it's your turn, Ben." Adam spoke, fighting to keep the long-gone Beast out of his voice as he looked away from the man who would have murdered him. "Pick any target on the Isle."  
  
Gaston was the one his father always talked about, and that was the one that Ben was most interested in seeing. What other villains did he know of? The only one that came to mind was Maleficent, whom Audrey always spoke about in whispers.  
  
("They call her the unseelie queen, Mistress of All Evil. She has dark magick, the kind that no good Christrian would ever touch.")  
  
"Show me Maleficent." Ben commanded the map, and footage showed up, of a young girl the same age as him, with fiery green eyes and leather gloves, and hair the color of bloodstained blue. It wasn't anything like the fearsome woman described by Audrey, and Ben was terrified and enthralled. Her lips were redder than any Auradon girl's could be (good girls didn't wear provocative lipstick, especially not at age ten), and even behind the magical barrier, her skin crackled with golden sparks of magic.  
  
"Stay away from me!" She screamed, kicking at an assailant. The man was wielding a knife, an actual knife, and the girl screamed, a visible wave of magic bursting forth from her little body and shoving the attacker backwards with a blood splatter that seemed almost comical. He'd never seen one in real life, only on television (and he so rarely was allowed to watch anything with such violence at home).  
  
Another attacker appeared from out of the view of the magic map, offscreen so to speak, and brandished another knife at the girl. She was actually pretty beaten up already, Ben noticed. His eyes seemed to focus on her face and it occurred to him that her lips weren't actually covered in lipstick - it was her own red blood that made her look so alluring.  
  
"Think you can fight me, little bitch? You and your slutty friend are gonna learn your place!"  
  
Ben's eyes widened. He'd never heard such words before and didn't know what they meant - didn't know what was happening when the man menacingly stalked up to the girl, who backed against a wall, clutching her hand. He reached out and caressed her cheek almost tenderly, before backhanding her hard, and dragging her to the ground. Adam knew what was going on here, but he didn't want to believe it. He wanted to believe that he'd done the right thing by putting villains in one place, a prison with no wardens. He wanted to tell himself the child deserved it, probably evil in her very genes.  
  
"P-papa?" Ben asked with a shaky voice. "Who is that girl? Is she going to be okay?"  
  
Suddenly, their attention was drawn to the screen by a scream of horror, and a blur of blue that launched itself at the assailant. The blur solidified into a girl, desperately clutching the first attacker's knife, and stabbing the second man feverishly as she sobbed, and he choked on his own blood beneath her.  
  
"Leave! My! Mal! Alone!" The girl screamed, and punctuated each syllable with a stab, making sure the bastard stayed dead. She was joined by the purple-haired girl, who held nothing but a shard of glass in her gloved palms and stabbed at the man just like her companion did, even though it meant more rivulets of blood trickled down her wrists.  
  
At age ten, Ben first saw the magic map and his father's villain. At age ten, Evie and Mal fought off two would-be rapists, covered in bruises and streaked with tears, and wearing someone else's blood like war paint as the life left the criminals' eyes.  
  
"I guess I should have explained this," Adam chuckled awkwardly as he dismissed the screen and rubbed his hair. "Maleficent has a daughter. She's called Mal, but I think it's just a nickname, because the mirror gets them confused sometimes. If you want to see Audrey's mother's villain, you must specify 'Maleficent The First'."  
  
"I - I don't think I want to see anymore, Papa." Ben whispered, still thinking about the dark and enchanting girls he'd seen through the map. The cruel and beautiful people. Prince Ben didn't discover it until much much later, but after they looked away, the girls on the isle began using their own blood, and the blood of their attackers, to trace out a magickal circle upon the hard asphalt ground.  
  
"Blood of my friend, blood of my enemy." Evie chanted, placing two pendants in the center of a circle above the thug's head.  
  
"Take these amulets, and charge them with power." Mal continued the chant, reading from a small black notebook. "Make the wearer undamaged by magick and charm, make the user untouched by hate and by harm."  
  
"By the power of blood, and the ancient ones three," Evie began the last rhyme, and Mal slammed her hands down onto the pendant necklaces, screaming:  
  
"As I command, so mote it be!"  
  
As the ritual commenced, several people passed by the alley. They would have passed by if the girls were being assaulted, they would have kept walking as the two were being murdered. Such was life on the Isle. As it was, witches were the scariest of all the magical creatures living on the island, and if a magickal blood circle was drawn, people walked a little faster.  
  
As the ritual concluded, a long dark shadow was cast upon the ground, and Mal looked up, to see her mother standing there, in all her dark glory.  
  
"Good job, my little dragon." She smiled, tilting her head to better observe the bloody circle and it's occupants.  
  
"Evie is my first follower." Mal announced, glancing sideways at her mother, but refusing to back down. She wasn't asking Maleficent. Mal was telling her. The mistress of all evil didn't seem to mind, merely smirking, as she nudged the body with her staff, raising her gaze to look over Evie.  
  
"You're the daughter of the Bavarian witch queen." Maleficent said airily, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Yes, your majesty." Evie curtseyed. "I'm a witch myself, not that it matters behind this barrier."  
  
"It matters an awful lot if you're playing the long game." Maleficent replied, before smiling, just ever so briefly. "Welcome to the family."  
  


* * *

  
Ben knew his first proclamation before he knew he'd be allowed to make one. He was going to bring them to him, to Auradon, where they would never suffer again. He'd make sure of it. He'd heard the rumors spoken by the adults who gazed regularly at the magic map. He knew that Mal wanted to be a queen, and Evie wanted a prince. He knew that the other two (Jay and Carlos, both beautiful like the girls, but not Ben's type) were close as siblings with them, so they would have to come as well. He'd never separate Mal and Evie from their best friends, the only friends they'd ever known.  
  
(Despite the fact that they're potential rivals, the beast part of him added in a slow, husky voice, and Ben swallowed it down like bitter medicine.)  
  
He watched Maleficent all the time now, even though her daughter (and that daughter's best friend) were rarely home, and scarecely seen. But Maleficent was a good study by herself. She wasn't nearly as evil as Ben had been led to believe, firstly. She ruled the Isle with an iron fist, but that was only because she wanted to maintain order from the chaos. Ben was learning every day, and every day he lost more and more faith in his father, and his father's choices. He watched from afar as they all grew up. As Mal saw the bright talent in Carlos DeVil, and pointed to him from a crowd.  
  
"He's mine now, Mother." She'd explained, and she brought him into their fold. He brought Jay with him, because they were always together, and Jay protected Carlos. But Mal protected Jay. She kept watch over all of them, even from their own parents. Ben thought her enchanting.  
  
More came to join them, eventually. Uma, the sea witch's daughter, who had to fight to overcome her long animosity against Mal to become her friend again. Ginny Gothel, daughter of one of history's most infamous witches, behind the Evil Queen herself. Freddie Facilier, the world's youngest voodoo high priestess, and Hadie, the daughter of Hades, who'd been born a male, and willed her body to change through magic, even behind the barrier.  
  
(The magic was only meant to keep the gods inside. Otherwise, with Hades and Persephone behind the barrier, no one would ever die or be reborn. Still, they weren't supposed to be able to do magic like that, even outside the barrier. The last god who'd been able to do it easily was Loki, and his pantheon was long gone. No one believed in them anymore, save the witches who followed the olde magick.)  
  
Mal attracted magic like a flame attracted moths, and just like fire, she'd burn anyone who got too close. He would have brought them all over if he could, but his father would barely allow just the four.  
  
"Are you sure you want to invite the son of Cruella?" Adam had asked, swallowing hard.  
  
"Of course dad! He barely speaks, and he's very shy. He really deserves a chance." Ben replied. And Mal won't leave without him.  
  
"Let the boy choose, Adam." Belle smiled warmly, if her smile was a bit strained.  
  
"Darling, they say his mother sold her soul to get her empire!" Adam whispered, as if Ben couldn't hear him.  
  
"And you believe that fear mongering nonsense?" Belle insisted. "I believed you better than that."  
  
"How else would a mad woman become such a success?" Adam muttered, but looked ready to concede to his wife.  
  
And so Ben got his wish, and they all came over to Auradon, Mal and the first three members of her inner circle, her most trusted lieutenants.  
  
And so the grand sequence of events were put into place, beginning the greatest magickal work of his time. Ben, who didn't even realize the full extent of his move, who merely fell in love with two beautiful girls, and wanted to be with them. He, a human, put it into motion.  
  
That was how it all started.


	3. The Beginning of the End

**Present Day: 0 Days After Coronation**

* * *

"Do you trust me?" Ben asked that night, after the coronation dance.

"Of course." Mal smiled graciously, dressed in a long Auradon dress that was more pink than purple, and didn't suit her at all.

"Then no more secrets." Ben whispered, leaning close. "I know about you and Evie, and I know that you didn't mean a word of what you said back there."

And Mal was surprised then, so surprised that she let it show on her face, and that was rare. Ben smirked a little at getting such a reaction out of her.

"Alright then." She began slowly, examining him. He'd heard rumours from the Isle, stories of a fae girl who could see lies. He was bare before her scrutiny. Almost subconsciously, his mind cast back to all the things he'd seen through that magic map.

 _(Evie whispered, "I'll always love you the most, M. When I get my prince charming, I'll make sure it doesn't change a thing." And Mal had wanted to say '_ ** _no prince will want me_** **or** ** _you, let alone both of us_** _,' but instead she said "Sure. And you'll keep him nice and cozy under a love spell while I make love to you in another room.")_

"So you know that we go together." Mal murmured, speaking slowly and softly. Then she grinned, and her eyes glinted apple-green in the night. "Did you know that she likes you too?"

Ben swallowed, feeling his face tint pink, and his palms get hot.

"She didn't want to be a boyfriend stealer, but she'll _love_ that you wanna be with us." Mal smirked now, back into her element, back in control. "I loved her first, I love her still, and where I go, she goes."

Mal chuckled a little bit, and grinned even more wickedly, if that was possible. "We share _everything_."

"You didn't really answer me." Ben replied, raising an eyebrow. He told himself to stay firm, even though Mal was offering him heaven on Earth, and having two pretty girls at once was any boy's dream. _You can't have a solid relationship without communication_ , he thought. They had to discuss this before it was too late. "You still didn't mean a word of what you said back there."

"I'm actually hurt." Mal frowned. "I was serious. I'm all about _good_ now."

"Yeah," Ben chuckled, "And I'm Jiminy Cricket."

Mal paused then, gazing intently at him, as if trying to gauge his intentions. Finally, finally she spoke, licking her lips slowly, and speaking under her breath so as not to be heard.

"I guess you're more wicked than we thought, _Benny-boo_." She said without a hint of mirth, nothing in her tone but anger. He'd seen through her plan. The plan that had fooled _everyone_ but him.

"You read me wrong." Ben smiled, taking her hand, and kissing her wrist. "I understand."

"I was under duress." Mal said, slipping back into her innocent girl facade, the same way she acted when she thought he was under a love spell.

"You don't need to do that." Ben said, entirely serious now. "I don't care what you choose, Mal. I'll stand by you and Evie. No matter what."

"Do you _really_ mean that?" Mal asked, in a tone that said she didn't believe a word of it. She'd been raised on an island with no promises. A place where promises were _made_ to be broken, like hearts and bones, and storefront windows, when the food was scarce and people started to riot. Like a glass bottle that needed to be a weapon.

"Yes." He answered without hesitation. "I love you."

"Even if I destroy your precious, peaceful country?"

Ben hesitated.

"Even if I _behead_ your parents, and burn the whole nation to the ground?" Mal added, watching him closely, her eyes glowing the faintest green.

"Yes." Ben answered. He pressed his forehead to hers, and all his intentions were open to her. "I... I love my parents. But I love you more. I've loved you and Evie from the moment I saw you, and what they did to you, to all of you... It deserves punishment."

Mal hadn't expected that. She'd expected him to freeze up, and gasp when she mentioned his parents. She'd expected to have to wipe his memory and spell him all over again just to fix it, to give them a chance to correct what had gone wrong.

Instead, she kissed him. She kissed him, and it was better than the first one. Now they were entirely open to each other, all honesty and trust, and Mal had never been like that with anyone except her inner circle. _(And she'd kissed nearly all of them at some point, save Freddie, who was asexual. She said it made her uncomfortable, and Mal didn't press the matter. If there was one thing Isle Kids understood, it was being uncomfortable with affection, and respecting others' boundaries. If you didn't, you were likely to get stabbed.)_

He'd been waiting for a long time to have this conversation, since it seemed like life and the coronation kept getting in the way. But now that she'd proven she cared about him more than her mother, and he swore that he cared more about her than his, they could really talk as equals.

"What are your plans?" Ben asked, after he'd pulled away, and placed a gentle kiss on the corner of her mouth. Her lips were stained with strawberry and her mouth tasted like chocolate.

"If I tell you, you have to _swear_ to keep it secret." Mal stated seriously, and Ben nodded.

"I swear." He replied.

"You can't just _say_ it." Mal said then, rolling her eyes. "We have to shake on it. Seal it with magic."

Ben took her hand, and Mal began the ritual.

"Do you, Benjamin Florian Beast, solemnly swear to keep secret all that I tell you tonight, even under duress of torture?"

"I swear." Ben replied, and the heatless, moss-green flame began to curl around their wrists, sealing the oath with a quick hiss, before it dissolved into the night.

They nodded to each other, and Mal began.

"Do you believe in magick?" Mal asked, tilting her head in question.

"Of course." Ben laughed. "I've seen it first hand.

"I don't mean fairy tale wishes, or blessings and curses, or that shit I did to Jane's hair." Mal rolled her eyes again. "I mean magick, with a k. Blood magick, goetic seals and sigils, runes and rituals. _Sex_ magick."

"I've heard of it before." Ben nodded. "Never seen it first hand though."

Mal nodded, glancing away for a moment.

"I do _that_." She finally said, spitting it out, as if she was afraid _that_ detail would scare him more than anything else she'd said.

"Like... Like the fair folk?" Ben asked tentatively, recalling the tales Aurora had told he and Audrey as children, how all the Fae were called _fair_ because even the ugly ones were so powerful, they'd curse you if you called them ugly.

 _("The seelie court are fascinated by humans, and they live alongside them, and intermarry with them." Aurora had explained to the children, tucking them into their sleepover cots. "The unseelie_ _ **hate**_ _humans, and do everything they can to trick them and cause trouble.")_

"No." Mal snorted. "Like _witches_."

"Witches?"

"Well, _technically_ , magick users of all genders and titles." Mal amended, sighing. "Jay insists on using the term sorcerer and Carlos calls himself a _warlock_ , but it all means the same thing."

"You all do rituals together? How did you do that on the Isle of the Lost?" Ben asked, recalling how magic and magic-users gravitated to Mal. He remembered the four who were left behind.

Mal looked at him like he was stupid.

"Auradon thinks ritual magick is a myth." Mal explained. "They didn't account for it in the barrier. Would _you_ put up a defense against the _tooth fairy_?"

"I guess not." Ben replied, nodding.

"So our first order of business is to get the rest of my gang off that stinking rock." Mal explained, not afraid to show her hatred of the place now that Ben had been sworn to secrecy. Not that she had ever hidden it before, but Ben was starting to understand her hatred better than the others, who assumed it was about their parents, or the danger, or the lack of food or healthcare (and honestly, he only knew about that stuff because he was the _prince._ ) Mal didn't hate the Isle because of any of those things. She hated it the most because it denied her her most basic birthright of magic.

"Uma, Ginny, Freddie and Hadie." Ben noted, recalling how he'd seen her choose each of them as a child, watching them through the magic map.

Mal smiled slyly at his knowledge of her inner circle.

"How did you know that?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I saw you all together in the magic map, a few times." Ben explained. It was the truth, as he'd watched Mal a lot, but the entire group was rarely all together. Mal saw right throughout him though, and smiled thoughtfully.

"I can just see you as a little kid," Mal smiled. "Sneaking off to check the map every chance you got."

Of course she knew the map. Her mother had sensed the magic the moment it went online, seeking them all out, no matter where they hid, making her skin crawl with the thought of being watched. Mal at least had the assurance that Auradon had never seen her rituals. Her mother had said that the high power and conflicting magicks would cause nothing but static to come through on the viewscreen. It was worrisome at first, but through her scrying, Maleficent soon realized that it would be misinterpreted as a fault with the map, and not the magic. No one had ever suspected, thank the old gods.

"I wanted to see you and Evie as often as I saw my Auradon playmates." Ben grinned, a little bitterly. He'd been kept away from them his entire life, and now that they were here, they were still so far apart, kept from each other by societal norms and plans, and keeping up appearances. Sometimes, Ben just wanted to say a big _fuck it_ to propriety, and do what he wanted.

But _that_ was how his father had become a beast.

"In any case," Mal continued, "Harry Hook is a member of the group too. He and Uma and Gil LeGume are inseparable. You can't take one without the other, even though Gil isn't magic."

"Harry Hook?"

"He's a half-witch. Actually quite good at enchanting and crafting." Mal explained. "His sister C.J. comes from the same witch mother, but she doesn't have the power."

"I see." Ben murmured.

"And... Well, Dizzy Tremaine needs to come over too. She's not part of the gang per se, but she runs errands for us, and if the rest leave, she'll be without protection." Mal swallowed. "She's not magic. She's only ten."

Ben wanted to say that he'd seen Mal kill a man at ten, but Dizzy (what kind of a name was Dizzy, honestly?) wasn't Mal. Only Mal and Evie could have done what they did at ten, and Ben didn't even know about the ritual yet. But he said nothing, knowing that Mal would tell him someday, when he was older and more trusted. It took a lot to build back trust, and between Ben's spying and Mal's spelling, they hadn't gotten off to a great start. They still needed to figure it out.

"I'll see what I can do." He said, quietly, before adding; "But there's a chance my father won't let me. Are there any other plans you'd like to accomplish?"

"I want to start recruiting from Auradon." Mal said, turning away from him, so that the moonlight hit her face _just so_ , and Ben noticed a faint scar that was usually hidden by her hair. "Jane has great potential."

"Jane?" Ben nearly sputtered. Jane was _nice_. He didn't think her exactly the right material for... Whatever Mal was planning. She turned away from the moon then, and back towards Ben, casting her face into shadow, save for the lights radiating out from the party.

"She's the daughter of the most powerful faerie in Auradon. She was willing to steal her mother's wand in front of the whole country, all because she has low self esteem."

It must have shown on his face that he was confused, because Mal smirked, and the light from the party cast her in a green light, like the wicked witch of the west.

"You need to start thinking like a villain, babe." She laughed, softly, gently. "What would Jane _feel_ , if someone explained to her how to become beautiful and popular _without_ commiting a major felony?"

"She'd be grateful...?" Ben began, and then it clicked. " _Oh,_ she'd be your best friend!"

"Right." Mal smiled. "Jane just needs a littls push, and one day, she could be amazingly talented in magic."

And honestly? That didn't really sound all that evil. And it wasn't even illegal, unless you counted Auradon's anti-magic law, and Fairy Godmother's personal magicless policy. And just like Mal's casual vandalism, and Evie's secret potion making, and the sticky fingers that all Isle children still suffered from, Ben thought that some laws could be broken. And some laws might _need_ to be broken.

He was thinking like a villain already.


	4. Heroes

_A/N: The maladies suffered by Mal and Evie are inspired by fibromyalgia and migraines, which I myself suffer with._

* * *

 ** _"Ye who are poor suffer with hunger keen,_** ** _And toil in wretchedness_... _But ill the fate of all who do ye wrong!"_**

 **\- Charles G. Leland; _Aradia, Gospel of the Witches._**

* * *

The Isle was bad enough for the human villains. Gaston, who'd been selfish and boorish before, became a terrible drunk, and though he never raised a hand against his wife, he berated her constantly. Captain Hook had been driven mad by the constant taunting of Pan, and the loss of his hand. He was a very depressed man, but his wife was even worse off, and the repressed magic in his son's bloodline was said to have been what drove Harry to his peculiar ways and his relationship with the daughter of a sea witch.

The Isle was a terrible place for humans, but it was hell on Earth for magic users, who felt it itch under their skin constantly, turning their hair and eyes odd colors as the only possible way to get out of them without tearing through their skin.

And Harry was the only one of them with a natural color, save Ginny, whose eyes were an unnatural violet instead of her hair, and whose freckles shone like gold sometimes, due to her mother's long use of regenerative magic. Mal could sense that the son of Hook was magical, and ritual seemed to help ease the pressure a little. But Evie speculated that all his magic was still trapped inside him. Uma was the only one capable of helping when he had one of his episodes, seeing and talking to things that weren't there. Later Gil helped too, even though he wasn't magic like they were, couldn't understand it and know the pain like they did.

The Isle was the ultimate punishment for those who were meant to have magic, _(and those who had never committed a crime, and those who didn't deserve to be **stuck there** like caged animals with their psychotic parents and a whole host of murderers and criminals and the dregs of society_ _)_ and sometimes Mal woke up in the middle of the night, with the full moon above her, _screaming,_ because the ache of her magic felt like all her bones were breaking, and her faerie blood wanted to tear her apart in order to escape through her skin as she screamed. Her joints were stiff and painful, and she couldn't make a fist to fight with. Maleficent, who didn't hurt nearly as badly (missing her wings, and having come into her magic _years_ ago) kept watch over her daughter, and spread rumors that the screams heard echoing from the bargain castle were torture victims, and not the screams of her only child.

The blue-haired witch had completely different symptoms on the full moon, Evie got terrible, debilitating headaches. Colors seemed too bright, and details in her eyesight blurred. She became feverish, and her mind raced, and the pain was so bad that she couldn't keep down food or think properly, like all her thoughts and senses wouldn't fit together properly. All she could do was moan and cry while her mother's servants put cold compresses on her face (because they didn't have iceboxes or freezers or ice, except in winter), and brewed feverfew potion to ease the pain.

Jay was the only one of them who didn't have magic problems at certain times of year, and before they all came together, he stayed with Carlos during the solstices and equinox. On the peak of magical power, the day of each season when ambient magic was strongest, Carlos became paranoid, seeing shadows and ghosts behind every corner. Jay kept him calm, and kept his mother far far away while he recovered, trembling in a corner of his bedroom, or pacing with frantic and violent energy.

 _(There were rumors that Jafar was still a genie somehow, behind the facade of a lean old man who used his son for all the dirty work. Jay was glad his father was no genie, and only a sorcerer. It meant he was human for the most part, with no magic in his blood. Only in his charms and incantations, gems and magic artifacts. He couldn't have known about the way djinn magic worked - just because he didn't have symptoms like the others, it didn't mean he wasn't also a genie.)_

The pain was easier for the adults, who'd already come into their magic, long before being sent away. The people of Auradon couldn't have known what would happen. There was no precedent for it. No one had _ever_ gathered so many magical beings into one place and just... Sealed them there. Adam and Belle got one chance to realize their mistake. They could have taken the children away from their parents, and raised them in Auradon - would any of the old blood families have wanted them? But in the end, after push back and panic, Adam decided to just leave it alone. No one wanted to risk taking villain children from their vengeful families, and no one wanted to take them in. It didn't help that the magical problems held off until puberty, after the kids had been under their parents' teachings for their formative years.

So they remained. And every new moon, when the tide was at it's lowest, Uma would hurt so badly she'd faint, and have to fight depression for days afterwards. Harry and Gil stayed close to her for comfort, and to protect her as she slept off the effects of her magic fainting spells and weakness.

Seeing all the sorrow around them, Maleficent was afraid. She did the only thing she could think to do, and filled Mal's mind with hatred and anger. She wouldn't let her darling little dragon give up on life, and that meant giving her something to live for.

"When you get out of here, my child, you will slaughter all the ones who did you wrong. You will relish their screams as you laugh, and dance in their blood. They will _pay_ for what they did to you." The wingless fae whispered as she sang to her baby girl when she writhed. Maleficent would have loved to touch her cheek, or give her a hug, but any pressure made the pain even worse. So she sang, and told stories of the Fae, of her people, and of their ancient ancestral homeland. _(The moors that had been **razed** by war and stained with the blood of magic. The moors that had been seized by the one human Maleficent had dared to trust since Stefan.)_

The Isle was the ultimate torture, and Queen Belle felt so sorrowful for what had happened to the children, especially once her own son was born _(not that she **did** anything about it). _Others, like Chad Charming, and King Adam even, thought that it had been the right thing to do. They couldn't kill villains, after all, _(thou **shalt not kill** , the Bible said.) _So they did the next best thing, and locked them away, where they would hurt no one _(but each other)_ ever again. They did the _right_ thing.

But that didn't make them _heroes_. It made them monsters.


	5. Villains

_A/N: Jay's surname comes from Jafar al-Shadiq, a historical Jafar who was a Muslim scholar during the golden age of Islam._

* * *

 **Present Day: 1 Day After Coronation**

* * *

"So... What do we do now?" Jay asked, during their morning meeting.

"Please don't tell me we have to be _good_." Carlos sighed, laying back on his bed. They were in the boys' dorm since it was bigger. He turned, watching Beelzebub lay beside Dude, purring softly as black fur rose and fell with her every breath. He'd abegged Ben to let him bring her along when he was invited to Auradon.

 _("My mother won't feed her and she doesn't know how to hunt. I'm all she has." Carlos had said, ready to smuggle her along in a half-closed suitcase if Ben said no. Fairy Godmother had just smiled, as if she was proud, like she hadn't expected a villain child to look after anyone but himself, so she agreed, and never once asked why he'd named his_ _ **kitten**_ _after the_ _ **Lord of the Flies**_ , _and how the hell had he even_ _known_ _that name?)_

"We have to keep pretending if we want the plan to work." Mal replied, a bit snippy

She had something heavy on her mind this morning. "If _your_ cat can get along with _Ben's_ dog, _you_ can play nice with the Auradon babies."

"And what _is_ the plan?" Evie chimed in. She was noticably happier this morning, because Mal had told her Ben was interested in her. And him. And all three of them. _Together_.

"What would you do, if I told you we could take over Auradon? _Without_ war, and _without_ our parents?" Mal smirked. "Get our revenge, and corrupt a few innocent Auradon kids while we're at it?"

"Sounds like fun." Jay grinned wickedly. "I've been waiting to do something _entertaining_ for once."

"Oh, I get it." Evie practically purred, clapping her hands excitedly. "We'll make a _coven_."

Jay perked up at that. A coven was a concept entirely foreign to Agrabah magick, where sorcerers were always alone, save for a familiar _(Iago)_ and a sentient magic staff _(the Cobra)_. His father had taught him some of his trade when he wasn't beating Jay for not bringing in enough stolen goods to sell, and Jay had taught himself the rest from his father's books when he could get a hold of them. So Mal was the one who'd first explained the concept of a coven to him.

 _("We need at least three people." Mal had explained one night, tracing out an elaborate ritual circle on the floor of the room Maleficent called her daughter's workshop. The Mistress of All Evil had her own, of course, but Mal and her friends weren't allowed inside. "Ideally, we should have thirteen, the most magical number.")_

Carlos moved his lips without speaking, thinking of something. Jay grinned even wider.

"So are the rest of the gang coming over? I can't wait to see everyone again." Jay asked, twirling a pen almost anxiously in his fingers.

"Ben is going to try his best." Mal replied. She turned to the window, and didn't see the surprise on Jay and Carlos' faces.

"Ben?" Carlos asked, pulled from his thoughts as he turned to face her. "How much does he know?"

" _Everything_." Mal breathed, the magic rolling off her tongue as she remembered last night. "Besides, how would I get him to help us otherwise? Unless we wanted to spell him again."

"What!?" Jay exclaimed, and Mal heard (rather than _saw_ ) the clatter as he dropped the pen he'd been holding. "How could you _tell_ him!?"

"I _didn't_." Mal hissed in reply, offended that after all this time, Jahid al-Shadiq, _her_ Jay, could think so little of her. The silence remained, and Mal pretended to focus on the tiny little people walking outside on the school lawn, all busy with friends and dating and evil knew what other _spoiled rich kid_ hobbies these Auradon brats got up to. All _their_ hobbies had been born from a need for survival.

 _(How Mal designed sigils in her sketchbook and painted them on walls to spread their power and influence,_ _ **and mark what was hers**_ _. How Carlos designed machines to sell as his only source of income, and cared for Beelzebub because no one else would,_ _ **and a warlock needed a familiar**_ _. How Evie made them all clothes to wear so that they wouldn't be clothed in_ _ **torn up rags**_ _, a nd brewed potions because there_ _ **was no hospital**_ _. How Jay loved sleight of hand because it helped him to steal enough food to_ _ **keep them all alive another day**_ _.)_

She turned from the window, and gave up pretending to watch Audrey making puke-inducing eyes at Chad Charming, just in time to see Evie smirk wickedly.

"He figured it out by himself?" She asked, but her eyes and tone of voice said that she already knew the answer.

"He's more wicked than we thought." Mal answered, with a nod and a smile. "He figured everything out, and swore a magic oath to secrecy."

She still remembered last night, sitting on a bench in the school gardens, and watching the colored lights play over his face as she spilled the contents of her soul to him.

All three let out a small sigh of relief at that, and Jay shook his head, smiling.

"I'm sorry I ever doubted you." He spoke, meeting Mal's gaze with a thoroughly repentent look. "I should have known you were better than some Auradon girl, who got blinded by love."

"Blind puppy love is for the weak." Mal snorted. "If you're going to love someone, you might as well do it right, in a way that gives you power."

And a year or two ago, they would have argued with that, and said _love couldn't give you power,_ that _love was weak_. But they knew now, that that sentiment was wrong. Love was one of the most powerful magic forces, and ignoring it as a source of power was the downfall of many a villain. These four were _better_ than that. They'd use it to their advantage.

"So Ben's one of _us_ now." Carlos mused, smiling faintly. "That changes things."

"After he was sworn to secrecy, I told him about what we do. _Magick_ , I mean." Mal explained. "He was so eager to try, I bet he'd become the tenth member of our coven."

"A human?" Jay asked, raising an eyebrow. "Can he even _do_ magic?"

Mal shrugged, as if she didn't care one way or the other. It was the opposite of how she felt. It would be stupid of her to say she had nothing against humans, not after everything they'd done to her mother, merely for the sake of being _fae._ But she hoped Ben could be different. She hoped their children would be made more _powerful_ with his blood, instead of weaker _._

"Dunno. But we can try." She said plainly. "And if it works, just _imagine_ how powerful we'd be."

"Are there other potential Auradon recruits?" Carlos asked, and Evie smirked.

" _I_ can think of one." The witch grinned. "Jane is the perfect combination of raw magical power, and easily manipulated insecurities."

"I was thinking the same thing. I have a little speech worked out and everything." Mal chuckled. Her best friend was always on the same wavelength.

"We basically only have one major, pressing concern." Mal continued, glancing away from the others. "What to do about my mother."

Back on the Isle, Maleficent was the only one of their parents who actually acted like one. Mal told them in quiet whispers, about how all her mother ever wanted was to be Briar Rose's fairy godmother. And how she'd been betrayed when Aurora sent her here, as if all her good deeds since putting a kingdom to sleep were for nothing. Because Sleeping Beauty knew the truth. And she said _nothing_.

"If that's what goodness gets you, I want none of it." Maleficent announced bitterly.

She'd embraced her title as Mistress of All Evil, and to everyone on the Isle, she was intimidating. She was vicious. She was a merciless killer. There were rumours spread about her, that she could kill you with the flash of her eyes and curse you without your knowledge _(she spread them on purpose. If everyone was afraid of her, she would never have to get her hands dirty)_. The screams that echoed out across the Isle from her castle were known, and feared.

But to Mal, she was just mom.

Maleficent couldn't make the other villains treat their children better. To do so would show weakness, and Isle villains had a serious policy of staying out of each other's business. Maleficent couldn't use her fae magic to _force_ Cruella to stop beating her son and working him like a slave, or prevent Jafar from whipping Jay if he didn't bring home enough loot. She couldn't _make_ Grimhilde treat her daughter like a human being, to stop constantly criticizing and belittling her. And ritual magic didn't _work_ that way.

But while they were in the bargain castle, Maleficent made sure they were fed, and left them alone instead of beating or berating them, which was better than the other three parents combined. She saved her private, stilted parental affection for when she and Mal were utterly alone, with no one to overhear, at a time of night when no one was likely to be looking at the magic map. She _rarely_ showed it _(too jaded and bitter by the life she'd had)_ , but she loved her daughter. She loved her a lot.

"What about her?" Carlos asked, getting back to the question Mal had asked. "I think you should let her stay a lizard until we've properly taken over."

"I know my mom can be... Unsubtle." Mal frowned. "But we _can't_ leave her like that."

"Wait, wait," Jay interjected. "Fairy Godmother said your mom became a lizard because of the amount of love in her heart, which we all know is bullshit."

Mal nodded. Even if Maleficent didn't love her daughter (which she undeniably _did)_ she'd still have more love than _that_ in her heart. Maleficent loved the moors. She loved freedom and Briar Rose (the child she remembered, not the woman she became), and she loved power and magic. Even if Maleficent didn't love Mal openly, and treat the others like her children in secret, she'd _still_ be bigger than a four-inch lizard.

"So with that out of the way, how _did_ she get turned into a lizard?" Jay asked, tilting his head to the side.

"It was a ruse." Mal smirked. "You all know how mom didn't _really_ want the magic wand. There were lots of people who didn't deserve to be on the Isle, but lots of others actually kind of do."

Although, if it was Mal's choice, she'd make an actual prison, and not just a slum. She'd have guards to keep the peace and appropriate punishments for appropriate crimes (as opposed to now, when theft carried an Isle banishment sentence the same as murder and rape and malicious apple poisoning)

Oh, and Mal _wouldn't_ _have_ ** _actual_** _children being stored in a_ _ **cesspool**_ _with hardened criminals_.

Evie nodded as she recalled. "Right. Maleficent only ever hung around our parents because the four of us had an alliance."

"Well, it's simple." Mal continued. "Once the barrier was down, Mom flew over here and made a big deal about wanting the wand. I went bibbidi bobbidi boo and poof, _she's_ a harmless lizard, and _I'm_ Auradon's darling."

"Wicked. I love it." Carlos smirked, relishing his expression as it was mirrored on Mal.

"I know." Mal nearly purred, preening in her victory. "And now we have that incident to look back to. Anytime anyone questions my loyalty, I can point to Coronation, and say 'I made my _own mother_ a _lizard_ for Auradon. What did _you_ do, Audrey?'"

"These charming, innocent, naïve _darlings_ will eat it up." Evie laughed. "I can't wait to be famous."

"I can't wait to be rich." Jay added his own wish, elbowing Carlos playfully.

"I can't wait for you idiots to _hush_ so I can continue." Mal rolled her eyes, but her tone of voice said she was only teasing. This was how they played on the Isle, with sarcasm and insults and thinly veiled threats. Compliments were considered weak, but jabs weren't.

"Go on, M." Evie giggled.

"So, here's the plan." Mal began to explain, sliding onto the couch like a queen, and gesturing with her palms out. "King Adam is never going to let my mother be anything other than a lizard. But will they actually go so far as to kill her? That's the real question."

"They wouldn't. They didn't kill her the first time, remember?" Jay interjected. "They put her on the Isle."

"But will they put her back on the Isle, as a _lizard_?" Mal asked, waiting for the others to bounce around ideas.

"That would be as good as a death sentence!" Evie exclaimed. "She'd get eaten alive. Maybe _literally_!"

"Ah, but they wouldn't actually be doing the dirty work." Carlos added. "We all know how King Adam likes to put people on the Isle and then turn his head and ignore them."

"So there's a strong possibility that they'll kill her _that_ way." Mal spoke solemnly, losing her typical smirk. "There's also a possibility that she only has the lifespan of a normal small lizard now. A few years at most."

"The way I see it, we have no choice but to get your mom out of there." Jay spoke then, pounding his fist into his palm. "If we get her out of that magic cell, she can transform back on her own, right?"

"Yes." Mal nodded. "But we can't let it come back to us. We need to figure out a way to deflect suspicion."

"Like a fake! A fake lizard!" Carlos exclaimed. " _That_ one will have a lizard lifespan for sure, so it'll die before anyone can realize what's going on."

"But where are we going to find a black and purple pet lizard?" Mal asked, scrunching her eyebrows.

"We can get a regular one, and transfigure it to match Maleficent." Evie mused. "It wouldn't be hard, not with the four of us and a magic circle."

"And with an electromagnet to temporarily block the video feed, It'll be easy as _shit_ to make a quick swap." Carlos added, grinning. _Of course_ , Mal thought, _leave it to Carlos to know the exact high-tech way to scramble a video feed_.

"Alright. We've got a plan. Good." Mal nodded, finally allowing herself to smile again. She'd never, ever say it aloud, but she really loved her mother, and was worried for her.

"We can do this. Easy." Evie smirked, grasping Mal's hand, and smiling brightly.

"Because we're rotten." Jay added, sliding onto the couch and bumping shoulders with Mal.

"Rotten to the core!" Carlos smirked, throwing an arm around Jay affectionately.

"To the core." Mal echoed, confidently. Proudly. They were the villains, the rotten four, the worst of the worst, and nothing could change that.


	6. Making Friends

**_"Love is the law, love under will."_**

 **-Aleister Crowley,** ** _Moonchild_**

* * *

Evie was the only one of them who had two parents. Theoretically, they'd _all_ had two parents, but Evie was the only one whose parent was on the Isle _(unlike Jay, whose mother still lived in Agrabah)_ , on good terms with her mother _(unlike Mal, whose mother refused to tell her who her father was)_ , and acknowledged her as his child _(unlike Carlos, who was a mistake, who was_ never _acknowledged by his demon father, even though he lived on the Isle, because said father was ashamed of having a half-breed heir after one drunken fling.)  
_  
This didn't have much of an effect on her upbringing, because Grimhilde was the head of household, and whatever she said was followed to a T. It did, however, give her a glimpse into the woman her mother used to be, because her father, Gregory Huntsman, had been the Queen's loyal servant for many, many years, and he always told his daughter stories of the _old_ Grimhilde, the woman he'd fallen in love with (before all the mirrors and madness, and fairest-of-them-all business).

Mal became Evie's ally at ten _(they'd been acquaintances for a while, but nothing solidifies an alliance like painting a blood-ritual circle in a dark alley and meeting the Mistress Of All Evil herself._ ) So it stood to reason that she was around the castle more often, and she loved hearing Evie's father tell stories of the way things used to be, in Bavaria, before Grimhilde lost her mind. It reminded her of home, of the bittersweet and saddish way that her mother had told her stories of the Moors. It was nostalgia tinted with pain.

"She always wanted power, your mother did," Mr. Huntsman would laugh then, turning some sort of small game over the fire. Squirrel or pigeon. "But not for power's sake, mind you. She wanted power, because it let her _change_ things."

And Mal wanted that _so_ badly. Even at ten, she wanted to grasp that power, anld use it to _strangle_ all of Auradon.

"Back in Bavaria, your mother and I were born to the same coven, just after the last of the purges. Purges, o'course, were those panics, when people blamed witches for everything, and burned them at the stake. As far 's we knew, ours was the last coven in Bavaria." Evie's father had stopped turning the meat then, and fixed Evie with a sly smile. "O'course, your mother found more o' them later, but we grew up thinkin' we was the last witches in the world."

Mal really enjoyed those moments together by the fire, and if _she_ had one good mother, then Evie had one good father, and between them, they had two functioning parents. Knowing that there were people in life (besides each other) who loved them, gave the two girls quite a confidence boost. They became something of a holy terror when they were together, and all of the Isle learned to cower in their wake.

Mal had made a lot of enemies during her childhood on the Isle _(Uma, who she almost drowned when she shoved her off the pier and the granddaughter of Mad Madam Mim, whose hair she cut off in chunks, when the girl teased Evie)_ but the original four were never enemies, even though it took a long time for them to be friends.

Jay sometimes stole something Mal had her eye on, but they were more like friendly rivals than anything. Jay had caught Carlos as he fainted one day, during a surge of magick. He later found out that the surge was caused by Mal and Evie's ritual circle, and he refused to directly attack them after that. He knew it was suicide - everyone knew it was _nuts_ to attack a witch who could cast blood magic.

That's why Jay almost had a heart attack when Jafar told him he needed to steal the ruby necklace that belonged to Evie.

He agonized for days, thinking and pacing _(and he'd never admit it to anyone save Carlos, but he cried too, from the frustration and stress)_. He crossed his arms and watched them from rooftops for days, thoughts racing. _Can't cross the witches, can't disobey dad. Mal will kill me when she catches me. Dad will kill me anyway._

There was added pressure after the first week with no necklace too. Because Jafar _knew_ the way Jay felt about Carlos, even at twelve years old, just the way that Mal knew she loved Evie more than anything. They couldn't _hide_ it. And Jafar _hated_ that his son had turned out to be gay (even though he didn't even know Jahid well enough to know that he was pansexual, not gay) so he threatened that if another week passed without the gem, the next time he saw Carlos, the boy would _suffer_ for Jay's weakness. And Jay could take _so much_ abuse, but Carlos was his weakness. He would never let _anything_ happen to that kid on his watch.

So it forced his hand, and on the one day Evie was alone, he cornered her in an alley and pulled a knife. Before he could even open his mouth to ask the question, Mal had knocked him down, by throwing all her weight against him, while Evie got the previously dropped knife, and held it to his throat. It would have been so easy to just kill him and be done with it, but Jay had been basically cool so far, and Mal wasn't in the habit of murdering other children. In fact, after that first ritual circle, no one had ever been brave enough to attack her or Evie again, which made her _wonder_ what made him do it.

"Please." He whispered, not caring that it made him look weak, not hearing how his voice cracked. "Please. I _need_ that necklace."

"Why?" Mal asked calmly, suddenly sensing a faint aura of protection around him, tainted with blood and sigils, not unlike the aura that surrounded Evie, ever since Mal had cast her ritual. It smelled sweet, but biting, like wine that had gone stale.

"I have to get it for my dad. Otherwise..." Jay swallowed hard. Admitting weakness and love in the same sentence was like suicide on the Isle. He was putting himself entirely at Mal's mercy: physically, emotionally, _magically_. And from what he'd heard, the daughter of Maleficent was not _merciful_.

There was a moment's pause. Jay couldn't see it, but Mal smirked. She could _use_ this. To have someone in her debt was a powerful thing, and not a gift to be wasted.

"Evie, give me the necklace." Mal finally said, keeping the knife on Jay while the princess removed her favorite gem. Her mother would scream at her for losing it, but Mal had never steered her wrong before...

"Now, I'm going to _give_ you this necklace, on one condition." Mal explained. Jay nodded from his crumpled place on the pavement, and Mal felt his skin heat up with a blush. She found her magic gave a little thrill at having that much _control_ over him, and oh, how she _liked_ it.

"Join my gang." Mal said, and stepped off of him, even though she still held the knife. Jay jumped to his feet and lunged for her, but Mal dodged it easily. He wasn't really trying.

"Excuse me?" Jay laughed. "Why would I want to do that?"

"Because that's the only way you're getting this pretty rock, street rat!" Mal teased, bouncing away again after Jay's second lunge. "And besides. I can't offer you protection from your father, but I can offer you _and_ Carlos protection from _everyone else_ on the island."

Jay didn't even _ask_ how she knew about Carlos.

That was how two became four. Mal later learned that she wasn't the only Isle kid with knowledge of ritual magic - Carlos was good at it too. One afternoon during the school week, Yzla had cornered him in the courtyard of Dragon Hall, and accused the white haired boy of sabotaging his science project - the only class either of them really cared about. Carlos denied of course, and Yzla didn't believe him, so a fight broke out.

Carlos came out on top. But as Ben would later learn, with shocked horror, Isle fights with schoolyard bullies weren't just fist fights, or name calling. It was serious. A fight to the death wasn't uncommon, and even if you got out alive, there was no hospital on the isle, and no one but your gang or your kin would help you. It was you, or them. _  
_  
Carlos didn't want the blood and bone to go to waste, so he made a circle, and infused a fingerless, studded glove with protective sigils, for Jay. It was what Mal had sensed on the day she held him down and asked him to join her.

There was other magic on the Isle too, as Mal and her allies discovered, one terrible Beltane night, when there came a pounding on the door of their hideout. On that first of May, that balmy witches' holiday, the moon rose high, high into the clouds, and shone like a Cheshire smile, even through the pink-mauve shimmer of the barrier. They were staying in the hideout, because even though the moon was a sliver, Carlos' magic all boiled out during the solstices and equinox, and they all wanted to be near him for support.

Cleverly, the kids had only changed the inside of their base, painting the inner walls with tags and symbols, so the outside looked just like any other warehouse by the water. It had a lumpy couch that they'd liberated from the furniture-stuffed attic of Hell Hall, and a bed that was big enough for all of them to pile up in, to keep each other warm in the winter. Af first, Mal thought the nocturnal visitor was Uma's gang, or their parents, who'd finally tracked them down and located the one place where they could be themselves. They waited with silent breath _(even Carlos, who wanted to scream, and usually did, this time of year)_ for one, two, three seconds - but the pounding kept up, and the four realized mostly at once, that whoever was out there wanted to _knock down_ the door.

Evie slipped over to the entrance, and peered through the peephole to the other side. She knew that whoever was out there couldn't get in without her permission - they'd warded it immediately, as soon as they moved in. Ginny Gothel was out there, Evie saw, through the little circle of light and darkness, pounding hard on the door, and she was covered with blood, biting her lip to keep from screaming. Behind her, taking a defensive stance, was Hadie, the daughter of Hades and Persephone. Her eyes narrowed, and her flaming red hair blew lightly in a non-existent breeze, as if it sensed the danger as she stood lookout for her friend. Evie stepped aside, and gestured for Mal to come and see.

Mal glanced into the peephole, thought for a moment, then nodded. She counted down from three on her fingers, and on one, she and Evie threw open the door. Ginny fell through, and was dragged over the threshold by Evie. Mal waited just long enough for Hadie to get inside, before she slammed the door shut - _and locked it, and reset the wards, and retraced the locking runes, and sprinkled the threshold with salt_ \- and _then_ she was ready to face the new arrivals.

"So what the _fuck_ is out there?" Jay asked, beating her to it.

"Her _mother_." Hadie muttered, glancing at the door. She could see the magic, and she was somewhat impressed, but she didn't show it.

"She - she tried to _sacrifice_ me!" Ginny whispered, trembling. It shook the four a bit, because their parents were _terrible_ , but even _Cruella_ wouldn't willingly kill her own child. Manslaughter by neglect, maybe, but not homicide.

"Are you hurt?" Evie asked, brow furrowed, and eyes narrowed, not caring that it made her sound weak.

"The blood... It isn't mine." Gothel murmured, rocking back and forth.

"She stabbed her mom with _her own blade._ " Hadie smirked, as if to say _that's my girl_ , on an Isle where affection was only pride and stolen glances and half-hearted jabs.

"Why are you _running_ then?" Mal asked, casting a mildly worried glance at the door.

"'Cause Mother Gothel is a freaking maniac." Hadie replied. "Also, Beltane is a night for regenerative magic. She's probably young again by now, and healed of everything Ginny did to her."

"And out for revenge." Evie whispered quietly.

"We should go." Hadie said then, beginning to pace along the south wall. _We can't endanger you by staying here. We can make it to my parents' house. Probably._ The words hung unsaid in the air.

"Stay here for the night." Mal explained, cutting off all of those thoughts at the source.

"Listen here, _purple_." Hadie snarled, unafraid of Mal as only a godling could be. "I don't want to owe you. I don't want my _girlfriend_ to owe you."

And Ginny Gothel let out a little gasp, because it was the first time she'd ever publically acknowledged their relationship as such.

"I'm not asking you to owe me." Mal stated. Firmly, kindly. A born leader. "I'm just offering you protection in my gang."

It had started, all because she wanted to be friends with Evie, and when someone threatened them, she _protected_. When Jay and Carlos were driven to an impossible task, she _protected_ them. When Ginny Gothel and Hadie showed up on her doorstep, dripping with blood and seething with anger respectively, she _protected_ them. And the very next year, on a cold, damp, Samhain night - as the faithful lit candles for spirits, and the fearful drank their spirits from cracked tumblers - Freddie Facilier screamed through the alleys of the Isle, seeking Mal's _protection_.

 **To Be Continued...**

* * *

 _A/N: This chapter got long - I couldn't leave out the juicy details and keep it an interesting story, thus Freddie, Uma, and Harry's tales will be explored in chapter seven - the next flashback chapter._


	7. Making Enemies

**Present Day: 3 Days After Coronation**

* * *

It was with a steady smirk that Mal walked into Remedial Goodness class, on the first school day after Ben's coronation. _(It was a_ _ **Monday**_ _. Blegh.)_ Despite how much she _hated_ this predjudiced, banal, _idiotic_ class, Mal was determined to keep her cool. Her reputation with Fairy Godmother depended on it.

Mal had hated Remedial Goodness from the very first day of class. Did this senile old woman _(Mal_ _ **refused**_ _to call her_ _ **faery**_ _\- she'd rejected her heritage on the altar of fitting in)_ did she seriously think that _evil_ meant sacrificing babies and kicking puppies, and stealing valuables? It was laughably easy to pass her silly little exams, and the stupid old woman actually thought she was making _progress_ with them.

To Mal, _evil_ meant cutting off a faery's wings - maiming your beloved for the sake of greed, as Stefan had once done to Maleficent. _Evil_ was raising a a child like your own ( _Briar Rose was a_ _ **Fae**_ _name - did they think she was named by Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather? Did they think_ _ **King Stefan**_ _named her that?_ ), only to have her betray you as soon as her little husband thought it prudent.

No, Mal had always been raised that evil was all about _intention_. Even Aladdin knew that stealing food for the starving wasn't evil - it was just a minor crime. Killing someone in self defense wasn't evil, even though it was the taking of a life. Evil was locking up children on a prison island to die, and then having the _nerve_ to be scared of them when you finally tried to fix your mistake.

"First, let me start this class but saying how proud I am!" Fairy Godmother gushed, clapping her hands in happiness. "You all chose good, just like I knew you would."

Carlos shot Mal a glance over Jay's shoulder, and she knew what he meant as clearly as if he'd spoken it.

 _Seriously?_

"So today, I thought we'd do class a little differently!" Fairy Godmother continued, and Mal was thankful for the change of pace, right up until she finished that sentence. "Today, we'll talk about why magic is illegal in Auradon."

And the world dropped out from under them.

"P-pardon?" Evie squeaked out, tilting her head. " _All_ magic is illegal?"

"It can't be." Mal whispered. "We rode the magic bridge to Auradon, from the Isle. What about the transforming statue of King Adam in front of the school?"

"Well, _the_ _state_ is allowed to use magic," Fairy Godmother explained then, looking a little bashful. "But normal people like you and I, are expressly forbidden."

Mal wanted to scream - this made her job all that much harder. She knew she'd have to hide her rituals and darker magicks, but even that bibbidi bobbidi _bullshit_ was illegal? That meant _no_ extra money from selling hair extensions, _no_ magical makeovers to tempt Jane, and they might even take her spellbook away - the last thing her mother had left from her days in their homeland - she'd _cry_ if she had to give that up.

Seeing the distress on Mal's face, FG smiled comfortingly and waved her hands in a gesture that must have been an Auradon thing, because Mal was hyperventilating and couldn't recognize it.

"Oh, don't worry dear. You're not in trouble for anything that happened at Coronation, or for the little... _indescretions_ before that."

Mal almost had a heart attack right then, because _how_ could she know about Mal's putting a love spell on _the crown prince_ , and just... Let it _slide_?

"While your hair treatments were unauthorized, they weren't causing much harm, so I decided to leave it alone until after coronation. Frankly, it was just because I was busy, and didn't have the time for an extended chat like we're having now." Fairy Godmother explained, and Mal felt herself relax. She didn't know about the love spell. At least it seemed like magic without directly _visible_ effects was still available for them.

The Headmistress sighed a little, and sat down in the chair behind her desk, rolling it out into the open, so she could meet their eyes. "To be perfectly honest, it was my fault, for not telling you. We just assumed that because you grew up on the Isle, you wouldn't know _how_ to use magic."

"So why is it illegal?" Carlos asked, neutral and level headed. For all anyone _here_ knew, he was human, and he didn't _have_ any sacred artifacts to be taken away, like Evie and Mal did.

"Because magic is dangerous, just like any other weapon. It's untamed, and has the capability to cause serious harm, even when used for good." The woman explained, turning to Mal with a heavily sweet smile that felt cloying. "You learned that first hand, _didn't you,_ Mal?"

And Mal knew she was supposed to say something about how getting Jane's hopes up was _wrong_ , and how she shouldn't have used magic on her, but Mal was sick and tired of having to explain herself to _this woman_. This so-called _Fairy_ who only ever did magic when _Adam_ , _the human_ , told her to. What the hell did _she_ know about magic?

"How is giving Jane a make-over with magic any different than using cosmetics?" Mal spoke instead. Her eyes flashed green, but she didn't want to lose her cool.

"I'm sorry dear, but use of cosmetics is vain, and wearing it is like flaunting, like _bragging_ about what you have." Fairy Godmother explained, giving a pointed look to Evie that made Mal want to punch her in the _throat_.

"Audrey wears makeup, and no one ever says this to _her_ , I bet!" Jay added.

"No one ever took over a _kingdom_ with makeup." The Headmistress said now, more firm and stern now, the motherly appearance nearly melted away for steely eyes and a set mouth. Evie begged to differ - her mother taught her that appearances were their own kind of weapon - she was tricking desperate men _without_ magic since the age of _ten_.

"So if I was to give Jane a make-over with cosmetics instead of magic, it would be okay?" Evie asked innocently, doe eyes wide as Fairy Godmother seethed even more.

"No. I don't personally raise Audrey, but if I did, I would ban makeup for her, too. It makes girls look... _improper_ , and the best look is always an honest one." FG replied, and Mal smirked.

"So you don't use glamours or concealment magic of any kind?" The purple haired girl offered.

"Of course not." The woman sniffed.

"Then where are your wings?" Mal asked, raising an eyebrow in challenge.

"Pardon?"

"Where are your _wings?_ " Mal asked again, more insistent. "I don't have them, because I was born on the Isle, but you've been a full-blood seelie Fae for decades now."

Just another of the things they stole from her, like her rights, her dignity, and childhood, and Fairy Godmother _dared_ to look down on her?

"It's none of your business, young lady!" Fairy Godmother huffed. "But if you _must_ know, I keep them bound under my dress to keep from frightening others!"

Mal didn't believe that bull for a _second_. She could either accept her heritage or not, and there was a slim chance of anyone but paranoid bigots (like Adam) to be frightened by the pretty, shimmering wings of the seelie tribe, the one of which Fairy Godmother was a part. As for the other half of Fae kind, the sort with dark-feathered raven wings and membrane-covered bat or dragon wings... Well, a little fear was a lot more likely.

"So it isn't _dishonest_ if it's for the greater good?" Carlos offered, just the hint of a smirk on his otherwise stoic face.

Fairy Godmother was silent for a moment, taking in each expression as she narrowed her eyes. Mal felt the barest tendrils of magic tickling around the corners of her aura, feeling out her intentions. Earnest curiosity would seem like she was faking it, so Mal resolved to show her emotions as anger, just a tinge, and fear. Let the old woman think she was afraid of something - people did rash things when they were afraid

Predictably, Fairy Godmother relaxed, and smiled again, slipping back into her kindly old woman persona, and pointedly avoiding Carlos' question.

"What are you afraid of, Mal?" The Headmistress asked, and the purple haired fairy made a show of being surprised. As if she couldn't _sense_ the other fairy's intrusion.

"I'm afraid... I'm afraid of being sent back to the Isle. It was terrible there." Mal explained, swallowing. "But I don't want to give up my magic either. I don't really have a choice though, do I?"

She gave a bitter laugh, and Evie took over where she left off. "We either swear off magic in Auradon, or be forced to life without it on the Isle..."

The best of lies has a kernel of truth.

"Oh Mal, Evie..." Fairy Godmother smiled warmly. "Part of being good is about denying temptation."

Mal officially wanted to hurl. Carlos shot a look at Jay while FG was focused on the girls and mouthed: like she does? It was easy for Fairy Godmother to talk the talk, because _she_ got to charm the statues and _she_ got to cast the barrier, and _she_ got to hold her wand on special occasions every few years when the king _allowed_ her to. If the Isle children gave up any inch of their power, they'd never get it back.

They walked out of Remedial Goodness with their trying-oh-so-hard to be good smiles, but as soon as Mal got to her locker, she scowled, and slammed it open.

"I can't believe that _bitch_ has the nerve to tell me off when she thinks I can't _sense_ her scanning me." The self-proclaimed leader of the VKs muttered, and Jay raised his eyebrows.

"Wait, what?" He asked, and tilted his head to the side. Being _almost_ human, he had less of a magical sixth-sense than the others did, and had only felt Fairy Godmother's invading tendrils of magic as slightly stronger than her usual aura.

"She used her magic to sense our emotions." Carlos explained, with a faint twitch in his mouth. "I bet it was worse for Mal, since they have compatible magic."

"Damn right it was." Mal sneered, then carefully schooled her face into a more appropriate neutral as she sensed Jane approaching. She'd sensed the girl first because they both had Fae magic,

"Hi everyone." The young fairy greeted them with a pretty smile, if a little forced. A little grieved.

"Hi Jane." Evie smiled kindly. "How have you been?"

 _Since you stole your mother's wand? Since you almost caused the end of the world as we know it? Since you grabbed an artifact you couldn't control because you thought you_ _ **weren't good enough**_ _?_ The words hung over Jane like a cloud, and even though Evie hadn't actually said them, to the anxiety ridden young teenager, it sure _felt_ like she had.

"Fine!" She lied (unconvincingly) her voice squeaking way higher than usual. Even the most naive of Auradon chumps wouldn't have believed her.

Mal raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, I'm _not_ fine!" Jane sighed, looking down. "How did you know!? Can you read _minds_?"

"Not minds. Body language." Mal rolled her eyes. "You're literally an open book right now."

That drew something of a strangled cry from Jane, and a glare from Evie.

"What? It's the truth!" Mal retorted.

"What my Mal _means_ to say, Jane, is that you're looking exactly like a kicked puppy right now. Take a deep breath, and count to ten." Evie coached, guiding Jane through the breathing techninque. "Now relax, and put a smile on your face. It's hard right now, because you're stressed, but think of your happiest memory."

For Evie, that memory was one she'd cherished since back on the Isle - she'd used this technique often, because frowning caused wrinkles, and a princess _always_ smiled, and _never_ lost her composure. Even when she was being insulted or screamed at. Evie's happiest memory was walking into Mal's workroom, and seeing the magical sigils and runes on the walls and floor, mingled and mixed with Mal's beautiful artwork.

"It's yours now too," Mal had said. "Everything that's mine is yours, because you're under _my_ protection now."

And Evie had felt her heart flutter because it was like a gift on an island with no gifts. She'd had other memories later, but that one was the happiest that immediately came to mind for her.

"Wow. That really helped a lot, Evie!" Jane smiled graciously now, and you couldn't tell that just a second ago she'd been about to cry. "Thank you."

"Any time, Jane." Evie smiled right back, as if she didn't have an ulterior motive. As if she had been _born_ for Auradon. "In fact, Mal and I wanted to talk to you about something."

"Aaand, that's our cue to leave for practice." Jay laughed, wrapping an arm around Carlos' shoulders to drag him off to tourney practice, which Carlos didn't actually enjoy, but which gave him a better reputation among the boys of his class, so he'd decided to stick with it for as long as it served him.

"See you guys later." Carlos waved, letting himself get dragged, more or less. It was secretive casual affection, the kind which they'd excercised on the Isle. Here, in Auradon, they hadn't seen a single same-sex couple so far, and they'd seen plenty of heterosexual pairs. So the two had decided to keep their relationship a secret for now, which wasn't _ideal_ , but it wasn't a big problem either. They were _good_ at secrets. They'd been raised for it.

A low profile was necessary.

"So anyway, Jane," Mal smirked. "We wanted to apologize for making you think you needed magic to be popular."

"Oh, I understand." Jane demurred, looking down repentently. "I know that it's better to be myself."

" _Plain Jane_..." She whispered, almost inaudibly. _Almost_.

"Actually, no." Mal sighed. "You _don't_ need make-up or magic..."

"But you _do_ need confidence, Jane." Evie smiled as graciously as ever, and Jane shrunk even deeper within herself.

"But I'm not that kind of girl." She nearly whimpered. "I don't have the kind of _flair_ that you girls do."

"Silly girl." Mal grinned. "Luckily for you, confidence can be taught."

Suddenly something clicked within her, and Jane's face lit up in a way that showed something she hadn't felt in a long time: hope. Mal could almost laugh at how easy it was, compared to the Isle and the constant struggle, the desperation and the claustrophobic pressure of the barrier. Seducing the young fairy's mind with the promise of power was _child's play_. The plan was building, the magic was growing, the coven was strengthening, and Jane Fairweather would _shine_ , like a priceless diamond in a sea of rhinestones.


	8. The Chalice

**_"We can know everything we need to know about a society by taking a look inside its prisons."_**

 **\- Fyodor Dostoyevsky**

* * *

Hades was the god of death, and Persephone was the queen of rebirth. While the former had ash-pale skin and the complexion of a corpse, the latter shone with dark brown glory, the color of the most fertile soil and sun-kissed figs, with wreathes of flowers woven in her long, intricately braided hair.

While Demeter was the goddess of all plants and the harvest, she had never looked close enough to see that her dear child's hair was _not_ adorned with sweet wildflowers as she'd always thought. Even after the woman returned for her first spring above ground, Demeter never noticed that the wreathes were swooping crowns of foxglove and belladonna, and the most potent poisons that had ever grown wild in the fields.

The two were well matched for each other, despite how much Demeter hated it.

So when Hades was condemned to the Isle for his part in releasing the Titans, Persephone went with him. She hadn't been a co-conspirator, hadn't been privy to that particular plan (or at least privy enough to need an alibi), but she loved him _(and she loved the unborn child she didn't know she was carrying when she was banished)_. Thus, Evie was the only one of the four with two parents, but _Hadie_ was the only on the entire Isle with two parents who loved her, and each other.

Her skin was like her parents', mingled. Black as soil, but ashen instead of rich brown. She had Hades' firey mane, but instead of burning like a hot blue coal, hers simmered in the color of fresh-spilled blood, not unlike the red tones of her mother's hair. Instead of standing straight up, it flowed down her back like molten iron, and waved gently, as if blown by an unseen wind.

Mal thought, on this of all nights, that she looked radiant.

It was Samhain, the autumn of her fourteenth year, and something was oddly stirring tonight, like the air before a thunder storm. Hadie was standing atop the roof of their hideout, keeping a close watch on the immediate area. This was always, without fail, the worst night of the year - because Beltane was the fairies' day and witch's night, but Samhain was for villains. It just seemed like everyone waited for Samhain to let all their crazy out at once, in one big revel.

On top of that, there was so much _magic_. It buzzed around Mal and through her and hummed in her ears like a gnat had crawled into her skull and taken up residence there. It wrapped around her fingers and _tempted_ her, and _called_ her, and sometimes she thought it would be better to just put a gun to her head and be done with it, than to live the rest of her life with the never ending drone of unused, unavailable magic.

Always so close, yet so out of reach. And Hadie _radiated_ it.

"What?" The young goddess asked, tilting her head to take in Mal from a different angle. She'd noticed their leader staring, even though Mal looked away, flushed and glaring at nothing.

"It's just -" Mal stuttered, trying to figure out why this seemed so hard. She could have said any of the things on her mind, like _how do you make it so look so easy_? Or _why are you so damn beautiful and distracting_? Instead she schooled her features and said none of those the careful statements she'd thought up that night.

"You smell like brimstone. Your aura feels like the air before a storm." Mal whispered. She could sense things so much better on Samhain - no reliance on runes or chants or circles. She felt more in touch with her true magic on this night. "I feel like I could reach out and touch you, and only feel static."

Hadie simply raised an eyebrow, and held her gaze for a moment before turning away. "Like the ancient tv sets we get here?" She joked, and Mal remembered a young Carlos, who glared, transfixed, at the black and white screen that showed King Adam's Fireplace Hour, running his hands across the static-laden glass.

Mal was filled with several emotions as she nodded. She was always somewhat jealous of Hadie - for her power (the power of two gods combined), for her effortless beauty (Mal could never aspire to the standards of an immortal). She was jealous of how she could be so cavalier, as if she didn't care who used her secrets against her, here in this prison where no one spoke the truth, because it put them at risk. Now she was even more jealous, because of her secure relationship with Ginny. Mal wanted to have that with Evie, and she didn't know how to start. She was afraid of being weak. She was afraid of fucking up again.

The sun was setting out to the west, lowering itself, glimmering, into the sea towards Auradon. The moon was on the rise as well, looking smaller and paler by comparison, but it was no less important in magic. In fact, in ritual magic, the moon tended to be _more_ important in several spells. As the untouched magic around them started to buzz higher, and tingle on her skin, she felt the start of that imperceptible rise to full power that would finally hit its peak at midnight, little good it would do her.

Samhain night had begun.

Mal had always had a tendency to overthink things when she got down to it. So she made sure not to think at all about what she did next - which, in hindsight, was probably a bad idea.

"Teach me to kiss." She said with a faint smirk, more an order than a request. Hadie looked at her oddly for a moment. She thought briefly about what Ginny would say if she knew, and then she remembered that Ginny was irreverant and hated anything that would make her look like a proper young lady in the eyes of society.

"Alright." The young goddess said, smirking, and resolved to tell Ginny as soon as possible. She'd probably get a kick out of it. As Mal started to smile wickedly, the other girl put up a hand, and gave a smirk of her own. "On one condition."

Mal scowled at that, although Hadie wondered exactly why she seemed surprised. _Everything_ came with a price on the Isle, even from members of your own gang.

"Relax _princess_ , it's not a big favor." The daughter of Hades laughed, throwing her head back in the rapidly darkening evening. The distant lights of Auradon glowed like a beacon just beyond the barrier, taunting them.

"I'm not a princess." Mal spat.

"Your mom is more or less the queen of the Isle. That makes you a princess." Hadie retorted, she always found it amusing to rile Mal up, and she was the only one who could get away with it.

"Whatever. Just tell me the conditions."

" _Condition_. Just one." Hadie held up a finger to punctuate her point. "Tell me who you're learning for. Who does our hot-blooded leader seek to impress?"

At that, Mal had smirked. The corner of her mouth quirked up, like it did when she felt she was in on a joke and wanted to lord it over the rest of the peasants.

" _Everyone_." Mal laughed. "I want to be able to seduce _anyone_ at the drop of a hat."

 _(To be fair, the plan to love-spell Benjamin Florian had been in the works for a long, long time.)_

Mal watched the way Evie flirted and stole, and _took_ from men who only wanted to take from _her_. She saw how pretty didn't always equal sexy, and vice-versa, and she wanted a kind of power like that, the kind of power that could bring a kingdom to its knees.

"You'll need a lot more to be a seductress." Hadie replied. "But kissing, I can help with."

And then the young goddess leaned forward, and pressed her lips against Mal's in the most tender of unions. Her lips were soft as rose petals, and Mal reflected later, after her first kiss with Jay, that kissing boys was different, and she'd later admit that Jay and Ben were different, just like Hadie and Evie were different. Mal lay awake sometimes wondering about her odd desire to kiss _everyone_ and see how they were alike and different. She wondered sometimes if that made her _wrong_ somehow. Weird. A whore.

 _(Her mother told her once, when she was younger, that 'whore' was just a word for a woman who got what she wanted.)_

Mal could smell the other girl's hair _(the scent of brimstone mingled with burning apple wood)_ , as she opened her lips, nibbling lightly on Mal's. She wasn't sure what to do, so she opened her mouth, tilting her head slightly so that their lips meshed together, like pieces of a puzzle.

 _What do I do with my tongue?_ She thought, not sure whether to keep it flat against the top of her mouth or the bottom, and not sure whether to keep it still or swirl it around. It was so embarrassing and awkward to be caught off guard like this. Sensing her distress, Hadie pulled back, and leaned into Mal's air, laughing a bit.

"Don't worry about your tongue. Just follow my lead."

And they met in the middle again, this time tilting more naturally, coming together more gracefully, uniting more perfectly than before. Hadie's tongue flicked out and caressed Mal's, stroking and pulling, like a parody of fucking with just their mouths, and the girl suddenly realized what the big deal was with kissing. It was like magic, and on this, of all nights, the apple-wood and dragonfire sparked against each other, filling Mal with a sense of power, like the time she and Evie had killed their attackers and made a circle of the blood.

 _Sex magick_ , her mind whispered, and as the moon burst above the horizon in slow motion, Carlos screamed (still audible through the walls of their hideout), and something awful across the Isle _howled_.

"Now then." Hadie laughed, pulling away. "You're starting to kiss less like a dead slug."

Isle compliments. Mal thought, and pounced at the young goddess, knocking her to the ground and pinning her hands to the side to kiss her again. It would be different with anyone else, but Hadie was part of Mal's gang, and on the Isle, you protected your own. If her voice became anything but playful, Mal would back off. Luckily for her, Hadie smirked against Mal's lips and let herself be held.

"You're a fast learner, Mal." Hadie had whispered when the other girl pulled away and tilted her head, grinning. Mal was about to make a snappy quip, but it died on her lips when she heard another scream, this time coming from outside the warehouse, and singing in conjunction with Carlos' seasonal agony. Something farther away gave off a howling moan, and was answered by a horrible chorus of the same, maybe ten at a time.

"The fuck is going on?" The Fae girl mused aloud, and stood up again, watching the street from their lookout point.

"You wanna go check it out?" The goddess asked, and looked to the gang leader for guidance.

"It would just be you and me. Ginny and Carlos don't go out on the sabbats, and Jay and E are busy." Mal replied. Ginny had been somewhat wary of going out on the witch's holidays (solstices, equinox, the eight sabbats of the year) ever since her mother had tried to _sacrifice_ her on Beltane. It was understandable, and any magic performed by the burgeoning coven was usually done within doors. Samhain was villain's night, and all the crazies came out to play - dangerous and unpredictable. They normally wouldn't have _dreamed_ of leaving their safe, warded hideout on Samhain night, but this sound was... New. And on the Isle, new meant dangerous.

"Right then. Let's go." Hadie nodded sharply, and took off across the rooftops, swift and quiet as Peter Pan's shadow.

They followed the sounds of agony and distress to a part of town near Dragon Hall, the cemetery where their school (the only school on the Isle) was housed.

"I've got a real bad feeling about this. I hate Facilier's territory." The young goddess muttered. The Shadow Man ruled the graveyards and the school, the only places he could carve out of the Isle hierarchy when they were all first thrown there. It wasn't much, but it was better than others had (well, _most_ others - the big four had their own estates practically, and Ursula and Hook _dominated_ the wharf.) Mal had to agree this time - something very fishy was going on here.

Another scream rocked the night, and Mal leaned off her rooftop, to see nothing short of a horde - something was shambling along out there, and _whatever_ they were, they had Freddie Facilier in their grasp. She shrieked, and kicked out at one of the creatures that held her. To Mal's surprise, its head flew back, and even with a broken neck, the thing _kept_ _moving_.

"Let go of me!" Freddie screamed, flailing her limbs against the almost overwhelming forces that threatened to swarm her.

"What do you say? Are we getting involved?" Hadie asked under her breath, and Mal nodded. Freddie had magic, and Voodoo was serious stuff - if the girl was in her debt, she might contribute to the coven.

Without another word, they launched into action, with fists and baseball bats at the ready, lunging into battle.

"Aim for their heads!" Freddie screamed, and the girls barely heard her over the cacophony of moans and wails, but they did as she suggested, and heard the satisfying crunch of shattered bone when they attacked. They'd never seen the living dead before, but they knew what dead people looked like, and Hadie took great pleasure in sending each and every one of them back to hell.

When they finally stood alone, surrounded by bones and gore, Freddie gave a sigh of relief and Mal saw her knees tremble.

"What the _fuck_ was that?" Hadie snarled, angry that someone had cheated death _(her_ domain!) and pissed that she'd wasted an evening saving someone else's hide.

"My father calls them _zombi_." Freddie whispered. "He sent them after me when I ran away."

"You owe me _big_ time, Freddie." Mal murmured, glancing around to see if anyone was trying to eavesdrop. Anyone who dared would soon be a dead man, but you never knew.

"I know." Freddie whispered, jutting up her chin with a glare. "What do you want?"

"An alliance." Mal explained. "Come join my gang, and you won't have to live with your father anymore."

Mal had never noticed it before, but she could bet that the shadow man had done more to his daughter than just sending a horde of zombies after her - the perfectly circular scars under her eyes nearly proved that. Her suspicions proved true when Freddie's eyes lit up, and she nodded, before turning jaded again, and glancing away.

"I can't do that. He'll just come for me." Freddie said then, still refusing to meet Mal's eyes.

"Can he get past three layers of warding, plus whatever _you've_ got to bring?" Mal smirked. "Mother Gothel's been trying for _years_ now, and _she_ hasn't made it yet."

"You drive a hard bargain, Mal." Freddie smiled. "How can I refuse?"

 _"We don't have dating on the Isle."_ Mal would tell Ben one day, several years later, on the banks of an enchanted lake. She recalled her first kiss, on a rickety rooftop at the start of Samhain, and chuckled a bit, remembering how her second kiss had happened just minutes afterwards _(and she'd been covered in gore and viscera, with Freddie making fake gagging noises from behind Hadie as Mal kissed like she wanted to_ possess _her)_.

"It's more like... Gang activity."


	9. The Wand

_A/N: In Wicca, the chalice represents feminine energy and the womb, hence why I called the last chapter "The Chalice", as it was largely about Mal's sexuality. Likewise, the wand symbolizes masculinity, and this chapter ("The Wand") is all about Ben and Auradonian ideas of what it means to be a man. (It doesn't actually have anything to do with Fairy Godmother's wand)._

* * *

 **Present Day: 7 Days After Coronation**

* * *

Ben had never been so afraid in all his life. He was king of Auradon, but he couldn't simply order the descendants he wanted to come over from tdhe Isle. He made his very first proclamation without challenge, but several influential families almost withdrew all together from the tenuous union that made up the United States of Auradon. Notably, the Charmings and Roses were so outraged that they threatened Ben with a _court martial_ the next time he pulled such a thing from under their noses.

No, this time, Ben would have to do things the official way, and get the approval of the council before he summoned the the VKs Mal wanted him to. It was painful enough to think about, that he cooperated with Mal on the list of kids who'd come next instead of jumping right in as he usually would. He knew that he shouldn't feel bad about asking for help, but some part of him trembled at the idea of relying on her. Even though he'd seen Mal in action before and knew that she could kick him three ways to Sunday, it still felt somewhat emasculating to ask for help from a girl the same age as him, a girl who'd had no formal education on how to rule a nation.

 _(As far as he knew.)_

Uma and Harry had to stay - they had the most power after Mal, and someone had to maintain order while the power structure eroded on the Isle with the main four gone and others soon to follow, and Maleficent no longer around to intimidate people. Evie insisted that Dizzy had to come over on the next possible boat, despite being worthless to the coven - she was weak, and without Mal's protection, she was in serious danger. Ben didn't really understand, but Uma wouldn't protect her without Mal there telling her to. Their alliance was shaky at the moment, and the only reason they worked together now that Uma solely ruled the Isle was for convenience only: they wanted the same things, and Mal promised her she'd get them off the Isle. _All_ of them.

Ben thought they could get Ginny. He was pretty certain he could appeal to Rapunzel's guilt and need for family to get her to accept what would tenously be a step-sister at best.

If Ginny came over, she likely wouldn't go without her girlfriend, Hadie, and Ben thought he could probably have her brought over, since Olympus wasn't technically part of the union, and no one knew very much about the gods. Then again, on the other hand, that might translate into fear, since even the magic of gods was still magic, and powerful magic at that. They might see her as dangerous.

The fourth new descendant would definitely be Freddie. Ben felt certain of her because of the things he'd been told by Mal, about how her personality was fierce, but she was a great actor. Unlike many of the others, she also had visible scars on her face, pale and circular, and nearly impossible to hide, even with make-up. It was clear and obvious proof she was being abused by her father, and if it was any Auradon child, King Adam would be knocking down the door at any moment with a legion of guards to apprehend the sick monster who could mutilate his own daughter's face.

If it was any Auradon offender, they'd be sent to the Isle.

 _But what would they do to someone who'd already suffered the kingdom's harshest punishment?_ Ben pushed the thought out of his mind, even as a follow-up question plowed forward into his notice, despite his best efforts and his mantra of _don't think about it don't think about it don't-_

The Isle was possibly the worst thing his father had ever created, and he was expected to continue that legacy. The council would never, ever, let him destroy that, even if it meant that innocent children would be the sacrifice.

Ben shook himself from that line of thought as Mal snapped her fingers in front of his eyes.

"Hello? Earth to Ben?" She asked, tilting her head in question.

"Sorry." He whispered, Adam's Apple bobbing in his throat as he swallowed.

"You've got to calm down, babe." Mal whispered. "If you don't look confident in front of your dad, he'll never consider the proposal."

If Ben didn't look entirely sure of himself, she got the feeling Adam would bowl him over like a steam roller. After all, Mal wasn't raised in Auradon, but she knew what it was like to live in a world where pride and bravado was everything - if you didn't stand up to the bullies or become a bully yourself, everyone would walk all over you.

Ben knew that too, of course. He was his mother in everything but gender though, and he'd always been too weak, too shy, too mild mannered to stand up to his father. Just like Belle, he fought with kindness and words and diplomacy, smoothing over conflicts with a smile and a wave.

That was why Evie had fallen for him as soon as she saw him, and why Mal had slowly come to love him as she watched how he was everything she'd expected from Auradon and more. He was so... Pure. And for once, she didn't have a desire to corrupt him, like she planned to corrupt Jane. She wanted him to stay like that forever, innocent and loving, and becoming no more bitter for the weight of the world on his shoulders, and the weight of knowledge as he uncovered the dark spots of his kingdom and resolved to _fix_ them.

"I know." Ben whispered. His mind cast back to a time once, when he'd overheard his father in mid-rant after Ben had gotten into an argument with him over _Chad_ of all things.

"I swear, he should have been born a girl." Adam muttered, not nearly as quietly as he thought, as Ben listened from the stairwell, tucked behind the bars of the polished mahogany banister (he had a lot of good memories on that banister - sliding it when his nanny and tutors weren't watching).

"Now that's hardly fair." Belle had scoffed, and Ben felt a little flush of pride. His mother always stood up for him in matters like this.

"You can't fight his battles forever, Belle." The king insisted, slamming a fist onto the table so loudly that Ben flinched from the other side of the room.

He'd gotten into a fight with Chad Charming that day, when the other boy had called him a sissy, and Ben refused to fight him to prove his superiority. His mother had taught him to be kind and peaceful - after all, his father's selfishness and anger had once cost him nearly everything. He didn't see how fighting Chad proved anything to anyone, and even though he sported a black eye to show for it, he came out feeling victorious, like he'd been the bigger man.

"I don't intend to fight his battles, Adam, but you can be _certain_ I'll step in when our son is in trouble." Belle replied, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"He wasn't in trouble Belle." Adam nearly snarled, glancing away from his wife with a sigh. "He needs to settle school-yard bullies by himself, or they'll just get worse."

"Oh, so _now_ standing up to bullies is your policy?" Belle raised an eyebrow, leaning back against the dining room table. (The small table they used for family meals, not the big one they used for company).

"What do you mean? I stood up to that bully Gaston, didn't I?" The former beast insisted, looking more like his old self than ever as his face flushed red.

"I seem to recall that a victim once stood up to a bully in _your_ household, and taught him a _serious_ lesson."

"Right!" The king preened, wiping his glasses on his sleeve, and Belle resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"... By turning him into a beast and cursing all his servants to be furniture."

"That doesn't count!" Adam practically roared, clenching his glasses mid-rage, and cursing as he heard the sudden crunch and shatter.

"Damn it woman!" The king insisted, throwing aside his crumpled glasses with a glare. "What is your _point_?"

"My _point_ , is that violence isn't the answer to every problem, Adam." Belle explained, glancing with disdain at the visible symbol of her husband's temper in the form of a pile of crushed plastic and rounded shards of glass (they'd been designed not to break sharply if the lenses were shattered, and she was never more happy for that than in the moments when her husband accidentally broke them).

"Well _my_ point, is that no one will follow a weak willed king!" Adam insisted, turning away from the table. Ben missed what happened next, because he'd scurried away from the stairs to avoid being seen. It came to mind, because he felt the same way now (with his palms sweating and a dread knotted deep in his stomach) as he had that night he eavesdropped on the stairs. He still felt just as woefully incapable of standing up to his father. But there was no helping it now. He couldn't rely on his mother to fight this battle for him, and lives were on the line, not just his pride.

Just before he left, Evie came up to him, and met him alone in the hallway as he left the boys' dorm.

"I know you can do it." She smiled, a little bittersweet, and she adjusted his tie.

"Yeah. I know I can too." Ben joked without a hint of mirth. "The question is, will Dad go along with it?"

"Can I give you a little good luck charm to help move things along?" Evie asked shyly, looking more unsure of herself than Ben had ever seen her.

"Of course." He nodded. She was so beautiful, and as much as he wanted to kiss her, he couldn't do it in the hallway where people might see. They still had the awkward tension of people who couldn't air their feelings, because Ben liked Evie, and Evie liked Ben, (and they both loved Mal with all their strength) but they hadn't had time to _talk_ about it yet. As much as she liked him, the thought of Dizzy being attacked, threatened, or _worse_ back on the Isle was sickening, and Evie insisted that this came first. All their teenage relationship problems could be dealt with later.

Nodding, and taking Ben's hand, she slipped him a tiny spray bottle.

"This is for... Persuasion. I used it so many times on the Isle that I can make it by heart." Evie smiled gently. "If your dad gets a whiff of that, he'll give you anything your heart desires."

Ben swallowed and nodded. It was hard to overcome the lessons that had been crammed into his mind since childhood about how magic was wrong and potions were evil, but part of the whole reason he was doing this, was because he wanted the Isle kids to experience their powers. He wanted all Auradon people to accept and decriminalize magic, because it was an inherent part of so many citizens. He had to get used to it, despite the way that it made him feel guilty, like he was handling drugs or a gun instead of a little cologne bottle that helped his charisma.

"Erm, just to be clear, this won't brainwash my dad or anything?" Ben asked tentatively.

"What if it did?" Evie asked, raising an eyebrow. "If it saved lives, would it matter?"

Ben had to think about that, because part of him said it _did_ matter, that the means couldn't justify the ends. But another part of him said that he was justified. The King's actions could save or condemn innocents, or if not _innocents_ , then good people put into a bad situation. Wasn't anything acceptable to put an end to that situation? Wouldn't anything go if it meant that children weren't being abused in his own kingdom?

 _(The road to hell is paved with good intentions.)_

Somehow reading his mind, Evie smiled softly, and spoke her next words in a voice that was barely above a whisper.

"Remember, Ben." She leaned forward, as if to kiss him on the cheek, when instead she whispered in his ear. "Seek not power for power's sake."

She breathed, and as soon as her breath touched Ben's cheek, she was gone, pulling away, and turning back to the dorm, waving goodbye.

"Good luck, _King_."

Back in the dorm, Evie leaned against the door as soon as she closed it, finally letting her composure fall.

"That was _way_ too intense." The girl breathed out, slumping, and Mal grinned as she walked over to her.

"Did you and Ben get some quality time?" Mal teased, and Evie glared.

"In the hallway where anyone could see? Nice try, Mal. Imagine what would happen if Audrey got hold of such a juicy tidbit of gossip." Evie smirked now, rolling her eyes. "By tomorrow, all the school would know how about how Ben's 'cheating' on you, and how he's been 'seduced' by another Isle girl."

"I'd gladly give up the spotlight to you, princess." Mal noted.

"And throw all our plans out of the window? No way." Evie sighed. "As much as I'd like to be on Ben's arm in public, a regal princess like mama always wanted, it doesn't change the fact that _you're_ Auradon's sweetheart, Mal."

And as much as she hated it, Mal understood that this plan was banking on charisma. She had to win the hearts of the _commoners_ first, and she was already halfway there.

"It's kinda lame that we can't be ourselves now that I think about it." Jay muttered. "Like, here I thought Auradon was this accepting place where we could finally show real emotion."

Carlos rolled his eyes, not a little bitterly. "Yeah, and lollipops grow on trees while bunnies frolick around under rainbows."

"Ew." Mal scrunched up her face at the mental image. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but Auradon isn't what any of us expected it to be."

She'd expected the dumb as fuck royals who believed so much in sweetness and goodness that they'd instantly fall in love with her as soon as she showed any emotion other than rage. Check. She hadn't expected on decades of repressed mental health issues and despite all the signs that had pointed to it (Briar Rose's betrayal, Charmington's widespread anti-magic laws that saw any magic user criminal or not, sent to the Isle without trial) despite all the warnings, she still hadn't expected the blatant, self assured _predjudice_ that bounced around in the echo chamber of the Auradon Council. Everyone agreed with everyone else that magic was Very Bad, without actually offering reasons except that they were scared of it, and from what Ben told her, Queen Elsa was the only ruler who thought otherwise, making her something of a social pariah among the Auradon elite.

(They'd fought so hard to get here, and refused to be thwarted at the finish line just because ignorant people hated them for being born.)

"My mother was out of her mind, but at least she said one thing that's always stayed with me." Carlos began, clearing his throat. He'd said it before, and he'd say it again. It was what _all_ their parents said, like a prayer on the Isle, the only thing that they had to hold onto sometimes when they were sore and freezing and hungry.

"Never get mad. Get _even_."

* * *

As Ben stood outside his father's office, he double-checked his thoughts and gathered his nerves before knocking. A spritz of the cologne that he was mostly sure was a potion as he reminded himself of why he had to do this.

(And he was _almost_ sure it was harmless, but if you asked how much money he'd bet on it, his mind would cast back to his conversation with Evie, and he'd swallow, avoiding the question. It didn't really matter if the potion was harmless or not, because leaving Dizzy on the Isle was anything but.)

Ben raised his hand, heart beating in his chest like a galloping race horse, and knocked on the door.


	10. The Athame

_A/N: I'm obsessed with Disney's scrapped idea that Ursula was Triton's sister, and in this au, she was the older sibling. Also, in keeping with the symbology of the other chapters, the athame stands for the opening and closing of portals and protective circles, like how Uma protects Gil and Harry, and cuts ties with her mother and C.J. This chapter contains a use of the "R" slur by an idiot who doesn't get a literature reference. Uma and Gil do though._

* * *

 ** _"One could conceive him capable of monstrous deeds, for he would let_** **no man** ** _, no_** **prejudice** ** _of men, stand in his way."_**

 **\- Aleister Crowley,** ** _Moonchild_**

* * *

King Triton never told his daughters that they had an aunt, because she'd been born as a siren instead of a mermaid, and cast out of the family to die, just as soon as they saw she had tentacles instead of a tail. That her voice was magic, in a way that mermaids were not. She could weave magic out of water and miracles from nothing but a soul.

(And it _galled_ her that their parents gave her _little brother_ the power of the trident, even though she was smarter, older, and a better leader than he was. Or at least, she _thought_ she'd be if anyone ever gave her the chance.)

Ariel never knew that the sea witch she'd sold her voice to, was her father's sister, that when Eric stabbed her, tainting the water with blood, he'd stabbed her paternal aunt. And if she had known, it might not have ever made any difference.

Uma _knew_ though. She was raised like a princess in exile, and knew everything there was to know about diplomacy and war, about magic and cunning, and _suffering_. Just like in the fairy tale, a mermaid _(or siren)_ on land never felt at home. Her half-human blood sometimes eased it, but often, it felt like she was walking on thumbtacks, and her very blood itched with the need to be back at sea, to hear her voice curl around curses and deals, to spread the glorious curls of her tentacles in the water like her braided hair could only mimic.

When she was ten, the son of Captain Hook stumbled into her mother's shop, muttering like a lunatic, and bleeding from the head. Ursula told her to fix him up, because it was well known that despite how ruthless Hook was, he cared about his children in his own way, and she wanted to make an alliance like the Big Four, because she was cunning, and desperate to garner the kind of power she needed to challenge Maleficent.

(The alliance worked, but Ursula would _never_ have the power to challenge Maleficent. Largely, it was because her daughter went behind her back and made her own alliances with Mal. They were all slaves to their parents and their parents' crimes, but _no one_ told Uma what to do.)

Captain Hook might have cared about his kids in his own way, but he was rarely around. Usually he could be found getting drunker and drunker at all hours of the day, and bemoaning the fate that had left him stuck on an island he couldn't sail away from (or cursing the boy who drove him mad and stole his hand). So when Uma visited, she was often greeted by Smee and the rest of Hook's crew, who had partially raised Harry after his mother died giving birth to his sister. Her mother taught her how to be a princess, and the crew taught her how to be a pirate. She learned all the basics, from intimidation and swordplay, to finding her path by the movements of the stars. She became the best rapier wielder on the Isle, and surpassed Hook's own daughter in talent, magic, and anything that actually mattered, leaving young C.J. Hook with an enormous chip on her shoulder.

(It was one of the reasons why Mal insisted, years later, that Uma and her triad be the last to leave the Isle. As soon as they were gone, Carmen Jane Hook would swoop in and fill the power vacuum, enacting swift and brutal revenge on anyone who'd been even vaguely allied with Uma.)

Harry wasn't her lover at first, but they were always friends. Once she knew how to be a pirate, she asked him to join her crew.

"As long as I'm not the cap'n." Harry murmured in a quiet accent, more contemplative than Uma had ever seen him.

"Why not?" She smirked, even though she had _no_ intention of making him captain of _her_ ship. (She'd won it off his drunken father in a bet, yet another reason C.J. hated her.) "I bet you'd make a great captain."

He gave her the oddest look then, the sort of look that seemed to peer through her, the looks that made him seem the most lucid.

"Makes 'em crazy, I hear." He stated solemnly, punctuating his statement with a twirl of his finger around his temple. "Drove my father _absolutely_ _nutters_."

Uma laughed then, and kept her reply simple. "You'd be mad as the hatter himself either way, Harry, and it has nothing to do with your father. I love you for it."

Not despite it, but because of it, and no one had ever said that to Harry before, not even his own mother. A feeling rose within his chest, blossoming like a morning glory in the dewy rays of morning.

It was like coming home, for the very first time.

Gil came later, and Harry caught him sleeping in their boathouse because his father had kicked him out. He was the youngest of his brothers, and smallest too. The main rule at Gaston's house was survival of the fittest, and Gil was clever, not strong. He didn't have the muscle to fight off his brothers for food, but his innocent facade and pretended weakness made him able to provide for himself in other ways. He'd learned early on that he looked good enough, and he got better rates when he acted younger than he was, because people who wanted sex preferred a boy who wasn't yet broken by the despair of the Isle.

So when Harry grinned at the thought of a trespasser to torture, Gil did the only thing he could think of, and stood on his toes to kiss him, with the cheeky expression of someone who was ready to risk it all because that's what he'd done from as long as he could remember, living from one meal to another and only being allowed to sleep at home when he gave his father a huge cut of his nightly profits. The gamble held water, and Harry smirked, raising an eyebrow as he pulled away. Kissing on the Isle wasn't about love. It was about foreplay, and if Harry didn't take a more professional attitude, it would escalate very quickly (especially since Gil kept _looking_ at him like that.)

No one looked at Harry Hook like _that_ except Uma, because men and women alike were too afraid of him. He could _take_ what he wanted, but he didn't need to, because he had his wonderful, beautiful captain. _And maybe now.._.

"Well, I suppose we can find _some_ use for you." He murmured, pulling the youngest son of Gaston from the shack with a gentler hand than before, and with a few prods and words here and there, he was easily folded into their group. He learned to fight as well as he could flirt, and slept under a roof every night with people who would watch his back instead of trying to stab it.

The captain of the pirate vessel Leviathan laughed at the concept of monogamy. A merman could take multiple wives and concubines (did the Auradonians _honestly_ think all of Ariel's sisters all came from _one_ woman?) So why might a siren not take multiple lovers or husbands? And besides the point, Uma was a pirate, and pirates did whatever the fuck they wanted in the lawless arena of international waters. So when Gil LeGume looked at her with big eyes and bigger shoulders, she wanted to cut him down where he stood. Then he opened his mouth and said;

"Wow, so this is a real pirate ship huh? Cool! I kinda love it. The interior is like the inside of the _Nautilus_."

"The seashell?" One of the guards asked no one in particular.

"Dude's a complete retard." Another answered, and Uma's eyes narrowed.

"Leave us." She said, and waved the guards away. They saluted and left without question, knowing that their captain and first mate could handle a lone boy who was sick in the head. Once they were gone, she smiled, every so faintly.

"And who, pray tell, is the captain of this ' _Nautilus'_?" Uma asked, recognizing the name as the fictional vessel from one of her favorite novels, _Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea_. She had a well-worn, coverless version of the novel on her bookshelf in the captain's cabin.

"Nemo, my captain." Gil replied courteously, before he smirked. "But you are far from it, aren't you, my lady?"

Uma smiled in earnest now, recalling the explanation from the book about how Nemo meant "no one", and Uma was far from no one. She aimed to have everyone one day know her name, and Gil acknowledged that without even knowing her.

"You are quite correct. And what is your name?" Uma paused. "Be aware, it had better _not_ be Gaston Jr."

Gil had been born with that name, just as all his brothers had, but he, unlike they, had cast it aside a long time ago. He grinned.

They settled into a routine once Gil arrived. Uma woke up every morning, with the sunlight streaming through the window, tangled up in the arms of her first mate and curled around Gil protectively as he wore nothing whatsoever. They slept together in the captain's cabin of the Leviathan, which had a window made of melted green and clear glass bottles. It made the morning light that streamed through appear delightfully aquatic. The furniture was worn out trash, but it was all theirs, and no one else's, a world of their own, a world without end. A bookshelf by a desk in the corner held all of their favorite books, including _Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea,_ and Gil drew climbing tentacles and glowing seaweed and obelisks and graveyards in the margins, while Harry practiced navigation and cartography on the maps that sprawled over the desk at all hours of the day and night, and Uma kept track of the loot in heavy ledgers that were half-written with Auradon jargon.

For the first time in her entire life, in all of her sixteen years, Uma could finally say she was happy.

She refused the thought of love, and anything that could make her weak, but she couldn't deny how she felt, how it made her knees weak when Harry tilted his head and smirked at her in that way that made her heart pound. When Gil grinned and said "Oh captain, my captain," with a salute that said more than words. They would follow her to the ends of the Earth, and across the ocean, and to the depths of hell if she asked them to.

It had taken her a long time to build herself back up from the first loss of her childhood friendship. They used to be friends once, when Ursula shoved them together because she wanted to build an alliance with Maleficent (back when she still thought she had a _chance.)_ Despite the fact that they met because their mothers wanted power or protection, or to keep up appearances, they actually got along... _Swimmingly_. They were both leaders, were both girls who knew what they wanted, and knew how to get it. They both had an aura that made people gravitate to them, and they were the kind of women who built a support system by breathing, and armies without trying _(and an entire fully-manned navy just by being the daughter of a sea witch and the lover of a pirate and a fighter._ )

But once Uma shook off the earliest betrayal of her childhood, she became the most ruthless, most powerful, and most _loyal_ of the gang leaders on the Isle, save Mal herself. She relied on no one but her lovers, and fell back into the arms of Harry and Gil only when it was absolutely necessary - she relied on herself alone, and hated most of all to seem weak.

(Almost as much as she hated being called shrimpy.)

All of that fell to pieces on a dark afternoon in November, when there was a small mutiny aboard the Leviathan. It was easily dealt with, because Uma wasn't the best rapier wielder on the Isle for nothing, and she slit a lot of throats that day. But the damage was done, because Gil had been held underwater, and he wasn't waking up - Uma was hyperventilating, and there was nothing she could do, she felt helpless. She knew that with magic, she could help bring him past the brink of death, drag him into the land of the living, but she couldn't _use_ her magic under the goddamn fucking thrice-damned _barrier!  
_  
"We need to take him to the blue witch." Harry said, reading her mind as always. Of course. Mal's crew was the only way to access any kind of magic this side of the barrier, and they had to try. For Gil, who brought new meaning to their life they had to _try_.

Despite how much it would _curdle_ her inside. Despite how much it would drag up all her insecurities and throw them in her face again, remind her just how weak she was, how insufficient she was.

(Especially when it came to protecting the ones she loved.)

Hook swung Gil over his shoulder and they ran towards up town, taking back-alleys so no one could take advantage of their weakened state. Of course, Mal noticed them as soon as they ran across the border of her territory, and stopped them before they could get too close to her hideout.

"Please Mal, I know Evie can help him, and I know she's the _only_ one who can help him." Uma whispered, begging for the first and last time in her life. It felt like ashes on her tongue, like taking handfuls of her golden power, and tossing it into the ocean.

Mal looked positively sinful.

"Oh, I don't think so. After all the turf wars, after all the spilled blood, after everything you've _done_ to us? Why should I help you?"

To _me_? She really meant, and the words went unsaid, hanging in the air between them, as the original sin, the original cause of the rift between she and Mal whispered like a ghost behind her eyelids.

"Because if you _don't_ , I'm going to track down each and every goddamn one of your coven and _slaughter_ them!" She screamed, and the restrained, bound, _barriered_ magic pulsed with her intention. She'd do it too, Mal could tell. But she had to keep a straight face to maintain her upper hand.

"Alright. Say we _do_ help you." Mal smirked then, in full villain mode as she scoffed at the peasant before her. "What do we get in return?"

"One favor." Uma replied, and she knew the general honor among theives rules applied without saying, but they'd work out a solid contract when they had the time. _This would work,_ she thought. _Gil could_ make _it_.

"No deal." Mal rolled her eyes. "This boy means way more to you than a favor or a sack of gold or your entire fleet, even. I have a better idea."

"Do _tell_." Uma asked through gritted teeth, biting back her rage for the sake of the light of her and Harry's life, the one thing that had been lacking, the missing piece to their happily ever after.

"An alliance. You join my coven, and get to exercise your magic." She narrowed her eyes. "We put aside our differences and work together to get _off_ this rock. In return, I fix up your little boy toy, and as far as I can tell, it's a win-win."

Uma thought about that for a second, and glanced at Harry. Crazy as he might be, he was a very good judge of character, and he gave her a miniscule nod. The offer seemed to be genuine, and as totally _weird_ as it felt, she had no reason to believe that Mal would backstab her later. _She_ was the one who had caused the rift in their friendship after all.

"Alright." Uma nodded, breathing cautiously, as if the whole thing might be a dream, and offering her hand to shake. "It's a deal."

* * *

 _A/N: This chapter barely got done in time because real life hit me like a train! Please note that I hate_ ** _hate_** **hate** _to do this to you guys, but next chapter might be delayed, because it's actually a part-two of this chapter, and the climax of Act One, so I want it to be perfect. Expect that when chapter ten: The Cauldron comes out, you'll find out what exactly, in this au, caused the rift between Uma and Mal, and what happens before the four leave for Auradon. Thanks for reading!_

 _P.S: The two/three paragraphs describing the seathree all happy and in love made me genuinely feel content, so I hope it makes you feel the same way._


	11. The Cauldron

_A/N: The flashback in the beginning of the chapter is a dream sequence, just to be_ ** _extra_** _clear. Uma says some mean things as a child in this flashback, and there's no redemption for her in this chapter, but she will_ _ **eventually**_ _apologize in the present day, and come to terms with Mal._

* * *

 **Present Day: 8 Days After Coronation**

* * *

 _[I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream]_

They were once the best of friends, even though they had only been thrown together by circumstance. Because Ursula craved power to get home and reclaim her rightful throne, and because Maleficent didn't want to be exposed as a wrongfully imprisoned fairy without wings. They both needed allies, and if their children _(pawns)_ got along well, it was an excuse to get closer.

 _[I know you, that gleam in your eyes, is so familiar a gleam]_

Five year old Mal and Uma _terrorized_ the Coward's Market, so named because it was joked that no one who shopped there was brave enough to steal from the barges. Uma wasn't a pirate yet, but Mal was still a princess, and her eyes glowed with magic, even with a barrier, and even with the skinny, bird-like bones that showed through her skin and scared her mother when she thought the girl wasn't looking. They both carried themselves like royalty, because Maleficent was Queen of the Moors and All the Fae, and Ursula was Firstborn of the Line of Triton, so their daughters were being groomed to one-day ascend their respective thrones.

Despite their regal bearing, and perfect breeding, they were not so good at playing Auradon as Evie would be one day, once she was allowed to leave her high castle walls. They smashed stalls and stole goods, and stuffed zippered pockets so that no one could take back the ill-gotten gains.

 _[And I know it's true, that visions are seldom what they seem]_

Five became six, and six became seven. Uma met Harry and Mal met Evie, but they were still the very best of friends. The four hung out together, but more often in groups of two, Mal with Evie, Uma with Hook, or Mal and Uma, stealing and raiding, and getting pick of the barges, just like old times.

Their first fight was about tagging.

Mal's long-live-evil logo was always about her, and her family line. It never reflected Uma, or her other partnerships, and it never would, not for all the years she lived on the Isle. Eventually, she helped her friends design their own _version_ of the mark, but the symbol was hers, and hers alone. She refused to include Uma in it, and in doing so, refused to give up any kind of power to her. They would never be equals, because Mal would not submit, and unfortunately, Uma was the same way.

Despite that, Mal still loved her. She was a first friend. The first Mal had ever had. In those early days, despite the fact that she refused to share power with Uma, it didn't mean her care for the sea witch didn't get fonder.

 _[But if I know you, I know what you'll do]_

She loved her, was falling _in love_ with her. It was first love, and even though their rivalry was becoming more vicious by the day, and their power struggle wasn't resolved, and their minions (Evie and Harry) could practically feel the tension between them, and it was bound to end in flames - despite all that, she was _fiercely_ attracted to Uma.

It all came to a head when they were thirteen, and Mal decided she wanted to kiss her. To claim her, to prove once and for all, that she was the _only_ queen on the Isle, and their parents were _nobodies (not that Maleficent had ever wanted to be anything other than one girl's fairy godmother)_ , and Uma could rule at her side over all the peasants in the world, but _Mal_ would always rule over Uma, the only person in the whole wide world who could best her.

They were alone on the pier like usual, when she made her move, and even though Mal was only thirteen, she was a very good judge of character, and thought she knew exactly how Uma would react when she leaned forward, and pressed her lips against her oldest friend's mouth, as the waves broke around them, and the goblins scattered as magic gathered like static on a television set, and the air _spun_ like a broken compass.

 _[You'll love me at once]_

Uma slapped her.

"What the _fuck_ was that about, you _dyke!?_ " Uma screamed, standing up, shoving Mal, stepping back. "I thought you were my friend!"

Her mother had beaten it into her that love was _weak_ , and loving someone of the same sex was _unnatural_. Uma knew, logically, that her mother was wrong about all kinds of things, and it only made sense that she'd be wrong about this, too. When she saw Harry make out with Gil, she looked the other way, because Harry was _nuts_ , and Gil had been abused, and if it gave them comfort to be with each other, she wouldn't hold it against them, even if it made her skin crawl. But Mal had lived a life that was as close to _pampered_ as an Isle descendant could get. Everyone knew that Maleficent loved her, and she got enough to eat, even if it was rotten, and Uma found it harder to excuse unnatural behavior from a girl with a charmed life - a girl who, if she was being honest, Uma was painfully jealous of.

But knowing something and believing it are different, and Mal didn't know the turmoil that was going through her friend's mind. She only knew that Uma had called her a dyke. Instead of trying to explain, or crying the tears that pricked at her eyes and made her sinuses burn, she gave in to her rage, because her mama said rage gave you strength when all you wanted to do was die.

She was right.

 _[The way you did once]_

"At least I'm not a whiny little _shrimp_ who pretends to be a pirate because she can't be a _witch_!" Mal screamed, rushing at her former friend, knocking her hard onto her back, and punching her in the jaw. Uma saw stars, but she bucked up, reversing their positions, and pinned Mal on the ground instead, landing a series of punches on her face, jaw, nose, mouth -

"At least _I'm_ not a little _princess_ who pretends to be a _witch_ because she can't be a _fairy_!" Uma screamed, and stopped for just a moment, giving Mal the chance to chance to headbutt her, knocking Uma back as the satisfying crunch of a broken nose echoed over the silent barge district.

Mal stood back up, kicking Uma hard in the head while she was down, and spat blood onto the ground as she flung her hair out of her eyes.

"I don't pretend _shit_ , shrimpy." Mal smirked through the blood and dirt on her face, and her eyes glowed green. "I _am_ a witch. And you don't need wings to be a _fae_ , you dumb bitch."

 _[Upon A Dream]_

Mal woke up in a cold sweat in their Auradon dorm. Evie had a separate canopy beside hers, but they'd slept in the same bed since she was fourteen, so it seemed a little weird to stop now. It wasn't like any student but Ben and the guys would see them anyway.

She glanced at the bedside clock and sighed, running a hand down her face.

"What's up...?" Evie murmured in the semi-darkness as the full moon shone through the window.

"Sorry babe. Did I wake you?" Mal asked quietly, more subdued than she'd sounded in years.

"Yeah. I don't mind much though." Evie smiled serenely, and her next words were said in her patented mocking mother voice. "Exfoliate enough, and any lost beauty sleep is negligible!'

Mal chuckled at that, and smirked. "I know how you feel. I'm wired from the ritual."

After Ben had left, earlier that night, Carlos brought out the little green lizard that had been purchased from a pet store, and placed it in the middle of the floor. Mal had put her hands in her pockets to hide the shaking as Evie returned from her chat with the King in the hallway, and she smiled at the pet reptile.

"I know this is a lot to ask of a lizard I've just met." She'd chuckled almost giddily. "But are you prepared to be a parent?"

They'd made a circle in the room, drawn out the necessary runes and the triangles and the geometric lines along directional planes. It was a merging of all their magics, with Evie's Germanic runes, and Carlos' demonic seals. The geometry of Jay's pentacles and lines, and Abrahimic sigils, and the fairy circles and symbols that _generations_ of children on the moor were warned to never wander upon, contributed by Mal and Mal alone. It was the same circle they had in her workshop back on the Isle, and they'd cast magic in it before. But here, outside the barrier, things were different, and who knew what could happen?

She'd been able to make talismans that protected her coven, but they didn't smell of magic quite the way she knew this lizard would - they couldn't stop a bullet, and they couldn't save a life. It was like drinking watered down wine and trying to get drunk, it was Isle Magic ( _with_ the capitals, emphasis on Isle), and somehow, they all knew this was different. This was the start of it, and Mal's hands were shaking. Jay shook the change in his pockets every other minute. Evie kept checking her reflection, and Carlos tapped his foot and ran his hand across the tail hanging from his belt loop, all the nervous tics that Mal knew by heart, all the little synchronicities she thought they'd outgrown when they left the Isle.

This was Auradon Magic _(With_ capitals, emphasis on _Auradon)._ And there was no going back from this kind of magic. It wasn't meant to begin with a sleeping curse, with the prick of a finger, or the bite of an apple, or a deal with a DeVil, or three little wishes.

The slow rise to power began with a scale from her mother, and a gecko from a pet store.

No wonder they were still so wired, even now, at three in the morning, at a time when they should have been sleeping in before a well deserved weekend, where they could hide away from bitchy royals and discrimination and Remedial Goodness.

"Doing magic here feels so... Different." Evie explained, shivering a little, before pulling the comforter tighter around her shoulders and leaning into Mal. "Before, it felt like relief, like all the magic trapped inside of me felt good to get out."

"Like going to the bathroom after waiting forever." Mal said, and Evie rolled her eyes and shoved lightly.

"Gross, M."

"What, it's true!" Mal defended, before adding her next point in an almost reverent voice. "Doing magic here though... It's _so_ different."

"It's like worship." Evie nodded. "But to whom, I don't know."

"To us." Mal grinned, nuzzling the junction where her sweet-smelling blue hair fell over neck and shoulders in the way she knew Evie liked. "We're worshipping Magic itself, and those of us who can use it."

Evie always smelled like beeswax and herbs, like potions ingredients or apples. Even here in Auradon, where they had their pick of fruity, frothy perfume and soap (not that they could afford the same kind as Audrey, or Willow, or Cindy, given that they were living on _charity)_ she still smelled natural, and Mal knew that she preferred to make her own cosmetics, the way she had on the Isle.

"Do you remember the day I declared war on Uma?" Mal asked, mid kiss, her lips pressed up against her girlfriend's neck, and Evie hummed.

"Of course. You came home with a rearranged face, and your mother almost had a heart attack." The witch replied with a smirk in her voice, and Mal chuckled against her skin.

When two people have similar personalities and interests, and spend a lot of time together, the rivalry grows unbidden, even between friends. Mal had everything Uma wanted - a mother who actually loved her, the ability to use her magic to some extent behind the barrier, the charisma to attract followers who weren't just wharf rats, and the reputation to have the whole damn isle on a silver platter. They'd danced around uncomfortable silence, ignored the snide remarks. They'd avoided the things that ground on their nerves about each other's personality, until they squeaked like rusted hinges and everything burst at the seams like the overstuffed trash bags dragged off of the barge on the first of the month.

"Why?" Evie finally asked, and it was Mal's turn to shrug and hum in answer.

"I dreamed about it." She finally replied.

"And?"

"And I felt apprehensive. It's understandable, given the night we've had." Mal answered, pulling away, and tucking her knees up to her chin on the bed, wrapping her arms around her ankles.

"About Uma?" Evie asked, and even without magic, Mal could tell what she was thinking. _Uma's still back on the Isle. And even if she wasn't, she owes you a life debt. You saved someone she loves, and she wouldn't dare backstab you after something like that_.

"Not about Uma." Mal shook her head. "Just in general. Things are moving. It feels like the air before the storm, like the night we met Freddie. Something is happening, and not knowing what makes me nervous."

"Let's read the cards then." Evie sat up straighter, turning on a dim lamp, and reaching into a bedside table for one of her most treasured possessions. Mal had made these for her on her fourteenth birthday - a set of tarot cards, meticulously cut from cardboard, and painted by hand, with witches and warlocks of Bavaria on every scene. Evie had never need to tell her about it, because she'd asked her mother. Maleficent was not well versed in the ways of witches, but _everyone_ with magic used the cards, even light-aligned fairies and so-called "good witches" had a variation of the tarot deck that was more suited for polite company.

(Evie's mama had always scoffed at that. Half the cards' power came from pentacles and nudity and symbols. By removing things that people like Adam would find offensive, they removed part of their own power.)

Evie still had Mal's handmade deck, and she'd lovingly named it the Morgana Deck. She placed a hand on the top of it now, the plain brown back of the cardboard deck, and asked her question.

"Phase one of the plan has been enacted. The request has been made. The prisoner has been exchanged."

Mal recalled _that_ part well. They'd snuck into the cell with the terrarium that housed Maleficent's new form after the ritual, giddy with the magic high, and elbowing each other. They didn't even need to sneak, per se, because Maleficent wasn't off-limits, especially not to Mal. No one expected her to be able to escape (and though she _could_ , she _wouldn't)_. It showed a lot of trust, that Auradon left Maleficent almost entirely in Mal's hands, and that Maleficent left the plan for her escape in her daughter's hands as well.

This was _not_ the loveless lizard Fairy Godmother imagined she was.

The electromagnet in Carlos' bag scrambled the video footage, and they swapped one gecko for another, putting Mal's mother in the little carrying case that had once held the lizard from the pet store. She couldn't believe there weren't any alarms when they opened the terrarium.

"It's _ironic_ that she tried to take over all of Auradon and she gets fed better than _we_ were on the Isle." Jay groused, and Evie punched him in the shoulder, which probably felt like the punch of a teddy bear, if her teasing grin was any indication.

"You have to admit that crickets are a _lot_ less expensive than renewable inner-city infrastructure." The blue-haired girl mused.

"It _can't_ be this easy." Mal had said then, as they left the room behind them, only to realize that yes, it was _exactly_ this easy.

Once outside, Mal opened the little cage, and whispered, "See you later, mom."

Her mother wouldn't take a proper form until she was in a place where no one could see her, preferably behind a castle of thorns with Diaval. Still, she felt a warm glow of magic sweep over her, and her mother's voice in her mind, echoing in the silence like an opera house.

"I know you will make me proud."

Back in the present moment, Mal bent over the cards with her best friend beside her. Her _true_ best friend. She closed her eyes as Evie asked the question, afraid to see the answer.

"What will happen as we enact phase two?"

She'd phrased it very specifically. She didn't know whether it would succeed, because they were the inner circle, and they could do nothing less. She asked not about the obstacles specifically, but what would _happen_ \- that was to say, the machinations of fate.

When Mal felt steady enough, she opened her eyes, to see the card, and felt a tingling sensation down her spine, and the chillbumps of power on her arms. This was a card that might be intimidating to others, but it was the card of change, rebirth, closure, regeneration - it was something that Evie and Mal had in common, something they had shared since they were ten.

The card was Death.

And in the Morgana Deck, the only one of it's kind, Death was a girl who rode a pale horse, a girl with _violet_ hair that nearly glowed, _green_ murder in her eyes and a kingdom kneeling before her.

"Perfect."

 **\- End of Act One -**


	12. Something Old

_A/N: I know, it was a long wait to get Act Two started, but the new trailers threw me for a loop. This story was supposed to be kind-of canon-compliant after all, and now I've got new canon to deal with -_- Anyway, I freaking_ ** _love_** _Celia and her outfit, but Hades is... Unusual, to say the least. This chapter begins the new practice of merging flashback chapters with present day chapters. Eventually it'll be all present day and we'll be caught up with the current plans of our wicked witches, wily warlocks, and other mischeivous magical users! This chapter also contains casual cannibalism jokes so. Be aware?_

* * *

 ** _"Assassination is a quick release from intolerable fate, an act of_** **sunny optimism** ** _that one man's end will alter the flow of events in society's favor"_**

 **\- Robert B. Baer** ** _, The Perfect Kill_**

* * *

Auradonians were nothing, if not hypocritical, and that showed when it came to technology and magic, and the curious parable of Isle TV. Mal was only a toddler when it first came to the Isle, worming it's way into their homes and hearts and minds. And like all things in this bizarre story, it had started because of Ben.

Because Ben was a toddler too, but he was a _Prince_ , and bounced on his father's knee as he watched one of Auradon's new children's programs, a show with puppets and actors and music, all about goodness, and the alphabet. The television show was quaintly titled "Goodsville", and featured (predominantly _white, straight, Christian_ ) actors interacting with puppets of primary paint colors, in a little town of the title name.

"Do they have Goodsville?" Ben had asked, simply, with a child's candor.

Of course, the King knew who _they_ were. Ben had maintained that he knew two best friends on the Isle of the Lost, since he first learned to talk. _Imaginary friends_ , he and Belle had assured each other, because how could Ben know anyone from that awful place? Much less two children who were born after the barrier fell, like him. Still, Ben talked about them, and it often gave his father ideas.

"No, son. I suppose they don't watch Goodsville on the Isle." He thought for a moment. "They don't have televisions."

"That's sad." Ben said seriously, in the solemn tone that only a five year old can master.

"Why is it sad, Benjamin?" The king had asked with amusement, and the response surprised him, as his golden boy beamed up at him with eyes of the clearest blue.

"Because if they learn about goodness, they could come live _here_ , in Auradon!"

Of course, Adam Beast had no intention of letting villains come to live in Auradon. Not now, not ever. But the more liberal side of the council (voters like China, Maldonia, Arendelle), had been on his back lately about some kind of rehabilitation program, something that would encourage villains to better themselves instead of just languishing (though the bastards deserved it to be sure) and it planted the seed of an idea in his mind, the kind of idea that required little effort, little money, and was sure to secure his victory in the November poll, when the council voted for the King who would lead Auradon for the next ten years.

He called up Lumiere to work out the details.

When television came to the Isle, they made sure it was powered by magic, so that even when the rolling brownouts kept heat from working on the cold winter nights, or air from blowing in the humid island summer, the televisions still blared, showing their propaganda and nothing else at any time they were turned on. There were two channels. ANN, the Auradon News Network (which featured the disgustingly sweet King Beast's Fireside Chats every Sunday night) and The Isle Channel, which played all propaganda, all the time, and was treated with as much respect as could be expected by the denizens of the Isle.

When television came to the Isle, Mal was five. Unlike Ben, who spoke sentences as soon as he could, and Evie, whose first words were a perfect "Mother may I?", Mal didn't speak much as a child, and as a five year old, who could read perfectly well, and had a vocabulary the size of her library, she spoke almost nothing, communicating in single words that charmed her mother into rare smiles. Now, she was focusing her single-minded intensity onto the television screen as it played reruns of Goodsville, and Maleficent couldn't help but scowl as an actress who looked painfully like Aurora spoke to a fluffy pink puppet about how girls should sit properly, and only speak when spoken to.

Mal narrowed her eyes, as if concentrating, and where her mother saw a bigoted and mind-numbing little show that she only watched because she'd read all her books, and the only thing else to do was _socialize_ \- Where her mother saw the program for what it was intended, Mal saw a _creature_. A pink creature that was not quite animal, and not quite human, like her uncle Diaval, conversing ever so normally with a human being, who Mal sensed held great magical power.

"Mama." Mal whispered (because she always spoke in whispers, even when no one else was around to hear them).

"What is it, my little dragon?" Maleficent asked, and paid more attention to her child and the program than she had in the last thirty minutes of daydreaming.

Mal silently swallowed, and pointed a finger to the puppet on the screen. "Fae?"

"No." The mother couldn't hold back a sneer, and she was glad her Mal was turned away, so the child wouldn't think the sneer directed at her. (Later on, she got sloppy with that, because she was tired, and _sad_ , and Mal learned on her own, to distinguish the ' _mad at you_ ' sneers from the ' _mad on your behalf_ ' sneers.)

"No, Mal. That's just a doll, being controlled by a silly little human in a studio in Auradon."

Mal furrowed her brow then, and for some reason, the last Queen of the Fae suddenly found the air a bit too thick for her liking, for reasons she did not understand.

"But I _sense_ it." The words came out, so distinctly her daughter's but tainted by magic, and Maleficent's mouth went dry. The child's father had been a human - she was certain of _that_. She wasn't even certain Mal could use her dragon form. How could a five year old use any kind of magic on the Isle, much less a five year old who was so much more human than Fae?

And then the realization hit her, right as the program changed to King Beast's Fireside Chats, and her daughter's eyes were still glowing.

" _I_ know what you're sensing, dear." She practically purred. "The magic that causes that reaction is inside the box."

Mal nodded, understanding dawned on her young face, and the world once again made sense. Her mother dug around in the crates of scavenged things, and found a particular brick she'd taken a liking to.

"Now darling, shall we try and get the magic out?"

Mal grinned, and though her mother wouldn't let her pick through the glass of the wrecked television set like she did ("You haven't the gloves, Mal. Stay back."), Mom _had_ let her throw the first brick through King Beast's stupid face, and it was a memory she would treasure, especially once she was old enough to really appreciate it.

They'd dug through the ruins until they found what they were looking for - a crystal that glowed red, and bled magic like a broken battery. Maleficent felt the ache of something irreparably lost, as she held the crystal and failed to cast a single spell, failed to make her eyes glow even marginally more than she normally could, and nothing like Mal's beautiful, toxic green. If she was a true villain, she might have kept it out of spite.

But she had never been a true villain, so Maleficent put that gem on a necklace, and gave it to the one of them who'd be able to use it. That same pendant would one day be the center of a blood ritual, and Mal would place it reverantly around Evie's neck as her first follower. Her first _disciple_.

Mal's first real gift to Evie was a gift from Ben, and none of them ever fully grasped the significance of the coincidence and luck, and the streams of happenstance that led to that convergence.

But Fate knew all, and the goddess whom the Fae worshipped as a faerie with a thousand eyes _smiled_.

* * *

Eleven years later, one Hadie, daughter of Hades, sat at a goblin cafe, with her girlfriend, Ginny Gothel, and the rest of their measly crew - Dizzy Tremaine, Diego DeVil, and Freddie Facilier. The latter was sporting a black eye and a split lip, and more scrapes and bruises than it mattered to count, because she'd run into her sister _Celia_ , her daddy's little _pet_ , the loved child of the family because she was Uma's half-sister, and powerful enough to actually work magic on her own, without the rituals. She was the backup, the contingency plan, the daughter her daddy had made because Freddy wasn't _good enough_ , and as soon he had proof that Celia was better, he'd sent the _zombies after her, to get rid of his_ _ **mistake**_.

She _hated_ Celia.

"When I get ahold of that little bitch, I'm gonna skin her alive." Facilier hissed under her breath as she bit into one of the double-cooked meals they ate, made from salvaged food with the mold cut off. The specialty of this cafe was a type of pizza, made with stale bread and blue cheese (because you couldn't stop cheese from molding here, but at least you could try and make it the _right_ kind of mold.) Ginny was eating something she'd brought from home, because it was well known that she was seriously allergic to mold, and it was too risky eating out in this neighborhood (or any neighborhood, really. Most people saw the mold as extra nutrition, and goblins _in particular_ didn't see the issue with it).

"I could fry her for you." Hadie laughed, coming out like a bark as she got enough of a flame up on her palm to light a cigarette. "I know it ain't much, but with some fuckin' kerosene, we could light her up."

"Then maybe I could eat something that wasn't green and fuzzy for once." Ginny snorted, grimacing as she put the cool back of her hand against the patchy hives on her face.

"Don't worry about it." Freddie smiled. They weren't being serious _(probably)_ but this was something she wanted (no, _needed)_ to handle on her own. "Next time I see Celia, I'm gonna slit her throat and send her to meet Baron Samedi _myself_ , you know?"

"I'm suddenly glad I'm an only child." Dizzy grinned, elbowing Freddie lightly, not hard enough to hurt her bruises.

"We got stuck with _cousins_ , little _chica_." Diego snickered, ruffling her hair as she leaned over the table, nearly knocking things over to swat at him.

"I'm not _little_! I'm just a year younger than you, idiot!"

"At least you guys have _normal_ cousins." Hadie frowned, thinking about something. "I think some of my cousins might _also_ be my uncles."

It was a normal day on the Isle, and just like every other day, when the bare-bulb lights flickered and dimmed, and the air conditioning suddenly gave out, they all hooted and booed at the television in the corner. It fed off the magic trapped within the barrier, and never, ever lost power. Their benevolent overlords could easily wire the rest of island to work off the same power source, but it wouldn't benefit King Adam in the same way that "rehabilitation" via the televisions would, so people would still die of heatstroke in the summer, and hypothermia in the winter, and electrical outages would be just another defining feature of life on the Isle.

Someone at the back of the cafe was already drunk at two in the afternoon, and he threw a tomato slice at the offending screen. The goblin behind the counter took umbridge at that, and jumped over the makeshift cash register and safe to chew him out in the rapid-fire language they spoke.

Mal was the only non-goblin that Freddie had ever heard speak to them in their own tongue, and she never told her outer circle (everyone but Carlos, Jay and Evie) how or why she'd learned.

With nothing better to do, Freddie turned away from Diego and Dizzy, who were getting increasingly flirtatious with their argument, and Hadie, who was trying to impress Ginny by getting her hair to light up in the darkened storefront. Displays of affection made her gag, so she glanced towards the marginally less vomit-worthy news program.

"Hey - shut up idiots - something's going on." The dark-skinned girl growled, raising a hand to silence the others, and she could never _quite_ pull it off the way that Mal did. Dizzy whined, and Hadie glared at her, but they followed her gaze to the television, where King Ben _the Naïve_ stood at a podium for a breaking news broadcast.

" _And thanks to my father, King Adam, and my lovely betrothed, the lady Mal_ ," the golden boy said, all radiant and handsome, in a crown too big for him, " _We can now welcome four new children from the Isle of the Lost. Four more young people with a chance to choose_ _ **good**_."

Waiting with bated breath, afraid to make a sound, afraid to even blink, and when the man at the back of the cafe sneezed, the goblin threw him out, _silently_ , even more annoyed than when he'd thrown the slice of tomato. The goblin had served these kids for years, and if that patron interrupted this moment, his blood would soon be on the table, and it would be a _mess_ to clean up.

" _I'd love to welcome Hadie, daughter of Hades, Ginny Gothel, Dizzy Tremaine, and Freddie Facilier to Auradon!_ "

"'Guess I'll have to kill Celia later." Freddie smirked, to hide her relief, as Diego hugged Dizzy close to him, and spun her around in the air, her multicolored skirt flaring out around her like a flower.

"I can't leave without you." Dizzy whispered, tearing up, as much as she couldn't stop smiling. "I couldn't leave Anthony either."

"You know I want you to go, _princess._ " Diego grinned rakishly, spinning her into a tango as the lights flickered back on, and the cafe music started to play again. "Mal _arranged_ this. She _had_ to have made it happen, which means _I'm_ next in line, kiddo."

"I'm _not_ a kid!" The girl protested, playfully beating on his chest as she cried with happiness, tears pooling out under the rims of her glasses, and her next words were quieter. "You know she'll want the coven first, and you're not magic. She only brought me over, because she promised Anthony."

She was right of course, but Diego never reminded her of it. It was the single thing that ended the turf war between the Tremaines and the Core Four when Anthony and Mal sat down to negotiations.

("If you and _blueberry_ love Dizzy so much, give her the best possible life you can, and I'll stay out of your way." He'd said, and they shook on it, and Mal had abided by that while they lived on the Isle. Now that she had the power to take four more out of hell, it went without saying that Drizella "Dizzy" Tremaine, daughter of Drusilla, would be one of the newest immigrants of Auradon.)

"I can't believe it." Hadie laughed like she was about to cry. "My gods, I can't believe Mal did it. How did _princey_ know my pronouns?"

"A _witch_ can do _anything_." Ginny grinned a feral grin, prouder than any of them that she could have taken something that her mother tried to use against her and made it her own. In that way, Freddie thought, she and Ginny were very alike.

"C'mon Gin. We've got to pack. Got to say goodbye to my parents." Hadie commented in a serious voice, but she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she stood from the booth and held out her hand for her girlfriend.

Diego and Dizzy were still dancing wildly, dipping and twirling, and Freddie stared off into the distance outside the glass-less windows as she came to terms with what had happened.

* * *

Across the Corona Channel, in a country called Auradon, a purple haired sorceress was creating a ritual.

Poison would be discovered, thanks to modern forensics, and a healthy dose of villain paranoia. A murder would mean a search for an assassin, and suspicion could mean an end to the VK program, and the four who were slated to come over from the Isle. As long as King Adam lived, Ben was just a figurehead, but for Adam to die, the circumstances had to be perfect.

"A coffin. A trapezoid." Mal murmured.

"Seven-pointed gateway." Jay said. "Seven for numerology, and the gateway for the dreamer."

"Religious iconography for that _personal_ flair." Carlos suggested with a smirk.

"And it needs a circle, the symbol of the witch." Evie added the final detail, and the outline was complete.

"Well, my dear King Adam." Mal smiled, once she showed the blueprint to her friends. "Welcome to your worst nightmare."


	13. Something New

_A/N: I... Took some liberties with the mechanics of Disney gods, and injected a taste of classical mythology. I had this chapter and the Hades family characterization planned out way before it was announced that Hades was the big villain in the new movie so... I regret nothing._

* * *

 **Present Day: 30 Days After Coronation**

* * *

When Ginny Gothel stepped out of the limousine and into the air of Auradon, she felt just a little bit bitter, in a way that had nothing to do with the salty air or the spring humidity. It was the cleanest air she'd ever breathed, and it kind of pissed her off a little.

"Hi." King Ben grinned, in his tailored suit, and offered his hand to shake. "Welcome to Auradon."

 _Everything_ was golden, from the pots that held the blue germaniums and hydrangeas to the statue of King Adam _(and_ not _featuring his wife Belle)_ , to the sunny smile on Benjamin Florian's face, and the crown upon his golden hair.

" _Put on a good show for the cameras_." He'd whispered when he leaned in, as if to hug her. "Mal's waiting for you."

When they realized Ben was in on it, when they realized he was less of a well-informed pawn and more of a useful bishop, Ginny nearly _had kittens,_ and suddenly, everything looked less cloyingly golden.

"Mal's been _busy_." Hadie laughed, and she didn't bother to whisper, because that could mean _anything_. But Ginny knew what she'd meant. Mal was groomed to be a ruler, and she'd been _supposed_ to take over with blood and death, fire and steel, but she'd decided to do things the old-fashioned way instead, the way _Grimhilde_ had done it - by marrying into royalty and ingratiating herself with the commoners. She'd done it the way Ginny herself would have chosen to do it.

There used to be a saying among the commoners, that faeries were fallen angels who'd rebelled against God with Lucifer, but were too _clever_ or _strong_ to be cast into hell, and walked among earth with their wings and all their magicks.

On this day, she finally believed that Mal might be clever enough to outwit God or the Devil himself, because Mal had conned the entire fucking country.

It was shown by the crowds of people who thronged to meet them when they walked to the gates of Auradon Prep. They'd all come in droves, but not to gawk at the ragged villains as they'd once done, several months ago, when the inner circle first arrived. No, the crowds showed up to show the common folks' massive support for the friends of Auradon's sweetheart, Mal Bertha.

"How do you know Mal!?" A reporter shouted a question from over the din, and held out a microphone, vaulting over the armored knights who were stationed for crowd control. Ginny took it with a dainty hand, having never used one before, and spoke softly into it with wide, startled eyes, looking almost exactly like a young Rapunzel as she looked into the camera. Ben wanted a good show for the audience? She'd _give_ him one.

"My mother once tried to kill me when I was very young." She pretended to hide a sniffle, to many gasps and sympathetic noises of the crowd, as she looked away, wiping her eyes with a sleeve. "Mal saved me, and she and her friends helped nurse me back to health."

"Mal is the reason I'm alive today, and I'm _definitely_ not the only one." Ginny stated firmly, looking back at the camera with watery eyes that shimmered violet, and freckles that were almost gold dust _(to match all the gold accents around them)_ , and she spoke with a solemn voice that echoed in ripples on television sets across all of Auradon. Ginny smiled then, for the first time in her interview, shy and coy, with her dark curls around her face and heavy eyelashes low.

"All four of us are here today, because _years_ ago, _she saved our lives_. And I know I wasn't exactly raised with the _best_ of examples - but if that isn't heroism, I don't know what is."

And the crowd _roared_ with a standing ovation, louder than the roar of any Beast.

* * *

"I'm _so_ sorry about your elder brother." Fairy Godmother had cooed sympathetically as she showed Hadie to the dorm where she would be staying with Ginny.

"Pardon?" Hadie asked, with a hand on her hip, and her hair flaming up with the influx of fresh magic, suddenly more full of life than it had ever been on the Isle. She wasn't actually trying to look intimidating (she was genuinely confused), but scary was sort of the default appearance on the Isle, and the Headmistress cowered back a little with a minor flinch.

"I- I'm sorry to have brought it up dear." Fairy Godmother clarified, straightening her skirt to regain her lost composure. "We saw on the magic map one fateful day, that your mother and father put on an extravagant party to announce the birth of their first child, a boy named Hadrian."

"Extravagant?" Hadie chuckled - she was getting an idea of what was going on now. Her _birth name_ was Hadrian, and it seemed like it might be fun to mess with the infamous Fairy Godmother a bit. "Yes, that _sounds_ like them. My dad would probably bust out any contraband he managed to smuggle to the Isle to celebrate being a proud papa."

In contrast to Hadie's jovial memories of having the only _truly_ loving, doting villain parents on the Isle, Fairy Godmother was terribly solemn when she recounted the next part of her story.

"But after about six years, the son of Hades and Persephone dropped off the map, and we never _knew_ they had another child until we glimpsed a few sightings of _you_ , running around with Mal's gang as a teenager."

"Are you terribly familiar with Occam's Razor, Madam Headmistress?" Hadie asked curiously, with an innocent smile.

"The scientific law which states that the simplest answer is most often the correct one." Fairy Godmother answered, looking a bit out of her depth. In biology class here at Auradon Prep, Occam's Razor was taught with a colorful allegory about the likelihood of encountering a zebra on your porch. For the majority of students, who lived in cities, suburbs, or fairy tale castles, such a thing would be ridiculous, and it would be far more likely that the hoofsteps one heard in the morning were the horses that drew the family carriages.

 _(On the Isle, Occam's Razor was taught with a brutally sarcastic excercise involving the likelihood of being whisked away to Auradon, and after King Ben's decree, it had to be removed from the curriculum.)_

"What I'm trying to say, Headmistress, is that _usually_ , the simplest answer is the truth." Hadie explained. "In this case, your assumption that I once had an elder brother."

She let a slow smirk creep across her face before she continued.

"But the truth is, I never had a brother, and I likely never will. I was born as a male child named Hadrian, and before my fifth birthday, I knew I wanted to be a girl instead." She grinned even wider now. "So I focused all the magic I could gather inside the barrier, and _made_ myself change, transition, _transform_. I _willed_ it possible with my power."

Fairy Godmother stared. Then she blinked. Then she took a deep breath and did some kind of hand motion that didn't change her aura, and didn't stink of magic. It seemed, for all intents and purposes, like some useless Auradon ritual, and Hadie wondered if she was supposed to respond beyond tilting her head in confusion.

 _(Fairy Godmother was, in fact, doing a calming deep breathing excercise to deal with the brand new can of worms that had been dumped on her. And she'd thought_ Mal _had issues_.)

"You know, Hadie, here in Auradon Prep, we have counseling sessions and support groups for people who don't feel like they fit in with their God given gender." She began, speaking comfortingly, and exuding an aura of welcome. Hadie chose to ignore the phrase "God given" (the greek gods believed in no gods but themselves, but the daughter of Hades didn't look down on those who did, and she wanted to give the Headmistress the benefit of the doubt.)

"Other people like me?" She asked, curious, and smiled just a little. Maybe Auradon wasn't as bad as she thought. Maybe she could find other people like herself, others who felt like they had been born into the wrong body, who wanted to try on their mother's clothes and find a different name.

"Yes indeed! Like Li Lonnie, who acts more like a boy than a girl, or Aziz, who can't bring himself to settle down with a girl in a nice, stable, _heterosexual_ relationship."

Or, maybe she shouldn't have gotten her hopes up for anything other than betrayal, after all, that's what Auradon was fucking best _at_.

"I've been working with my group for a while now, but it takes a while to work through these sorts of deep-rooted psychological problems. But if you really want to work at it, there's no reason you can't love the way you were born, and love your other half, the way God intended it!"

"Psychological... _Problems_...?" Hadie asked softly, in a furious whisper.

Fairy Godmother was so chipper, she didn't notice her listener's interested gaze had turned into a glare.

"Mmhmm, yep. So... Are these meetings and 'counseling sessions' _mandatory_?" Hadie asked with a look that could kill, and Ginny, who stood in the dorm room behind her was trying her hardest not to laugh.

"Huh? Well, _no_ , but - "

"Then you'll find I'm not interested. Have a nice evening, Headmistress." Hadie announced, loudly, before slamming the door, and collapsing onto her bed.

"It's almost as if she thinks your gender is a disease to be cured, and not an essential part of your personality." Ginny sniped sarcastically at the door, and Hadie huffed. Everything was shaping up to be exactly what they expected, but with twists galore, and it was making her head spin.

"Hey, don't worry." Ginny said in a softer tone, the kind of voice she only used around Hadie, the special voice she saved for her girlfriend, the _only_ person she felt she could be fully safe around. "When your father dies, and you ascend his throne, your worshippers in New Athens will love your duality, they'll say you have knowledge of the hearts of men and women. Your worshippers in New Sparta will say that when you were a baby, your male side and female side did battle, and the female side _won_. Your worshippers all across Auradon will say that death is a woman - it's a new era, because 'Death is a Woman.'"

Hadie laughed and leaned her head on Ginny's shoulder. "That's ridiculous."

"No it _isn't_ , you can guarantee Hercules, the God of Fuckups is gonna get an epic legend to add to the Zeus mythos when he takes the throne. You can have one too. Plus, you've got the whole princess-from-exile angle that I think really appeals to people." Ginny smirked then, and narrowed her eyes. "Everyone loves an underdog, even if that underdog stacks the odds behind everyone's backs a little."

Hadie nodded a little, thinking about things. Eons ago, they'd learned that the gods could die, but unlike the Norse gods, or the Egyptian gods, or the Sumerians, who'd let their pantheons die out, they developed a way to pass the mantle of godhood, and a number of personal magics to their children, and their children's children, or in times of desperation, through the process of adoption, to a complete mortal. Unfortunately, they hadn't learned this important ritual until after the death of Poseidon, and the seas we're entirely under the control of nature and magic, and with the mediator between Hades and Zeus gone, the fights between them escalated until it came down to the nasty business that was now know as the "Hercules Incident."

Each of the gods took a somewhat different approach to managing their heirs. Zeus tended to sow his seed in increasingly bizarre places, to see which of his offspring would prove strongest and end up back at Mount Olympus. Hera trained the wife that her husband's son would inevitably bring back. In this case it was Megara, who was snappish and sarcastic, and vindictive, _just like her_ , so it worked out alright.

Hades and Persephone were eternally loyal to each other, and had promised to find each other in every life time, and ever since the very first, they'd had one male child, and one female, (sometimes as twins), and they'd married brother to sister for generations. One to become Hades, and one to become Persephone.

As Hadie had once told Ginny: "Zeus and Hera are brother and sister too. And we're _gods_ , not humans pretending to be gods. We've been marrying siblings for centuries longer than the Ptolmies, with none of the consequences."

Until Hadie was born, rocking the boat, and the whole family was banished to the Isle, where Persephone found she couldn't have another child, a result of barrier magic, and the line of her succession was broken for the first time in history. So when magical, _lethal_ , Ginny Gothel appeared one day, without a home, after having been more or less dating their daughter for over a year and a half, you couldn't fault the queen of hell for noticing similarities to her myth, where, if she'd had an heir, she might have seen nothing more than just another mortal.

A girl with a strict, overbearing mother, who wove flower crowns of foxglove and belladonna and nightshade. A girl who could kill, who had an aura of life magic but had run away with the god of death at the first opportunity and never looked back.

It was _perfect_.

Pulled from her thoughts, Hadie finally turned back to Ginny, and raised an eyebrow. "So if Death is a woman, what does that make the goddess of Rebirth?"

Ginny smirked, a wicked little half-smile, and looked out the window, at all the students, milling about in their clean cut shirts and dresses, making small talk under the shade trees.

"A _villain_."


	14. Nightmares

_A/N: This chapter contains non-graphic Isle awfulness. If you can name the obscure New Jersey Cold Case that inspired the Devil's Gate Ritual, you'll get_ _ **massive**_ _internet brownie points. I apologise, as always, for the delay, real life is rough; but rest assured that this story will be finished, despite the sporadic updates._

* * *

 **Present Day: 31 Days After Coronation**

* * *

 ** _"..and dreams are older than brooding Tyre, or the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon."_**

 **\- H.P. Lovecraft** ** _, The Call Of Cthulhu_**

* * *

For the second time that week, King Adam awoke in a cold sweat, drenched in the stuff, with his pillow and nightshirt soaked, and his wife sleeping restlessly beside him. For the second time that week, he crawled out of bed and fixed the blankets so that Belle wouldn't notice that his warmth was gone for another several minutes at least, and slid his feet into the padded slippers by his bed, making his way to the washroom.

When he turned on the bathroom light, a haggard face stared back at him from the palatial golden vanity _(it cost more than most citizens made in a year)_ ; red rimmed eyes, and five o'clock shadow that he hadn't shaved from yesterday. He'd awoken from the most horrible dream, where he'd been chased through the narrow alleys and dangerous roads of the Isle of the Lost. He'd been raised as a Prince, and though tiny vestiges of his beastly strength sometimes came through for him in emergencies or times of anger, he was more or less defenseless here.

He'd been chased by an angry mob of villains, all out for his blood, and despite the utter terror in his bones, the chase was better than the quiet moments when he lost them. In the stillness, Adam had peered silently into the windows of the ramshackle buildings, curious about how the other half lived. He knew from periodic study of the magical map that he was in downtown, where conditions were much worse, and the heroes rarely used the map to spy, because so few infamous villains lived here. The theory had long been destroyed that villains usually loved their children, and it was a myth that Auradon kings and queens told their children to keep them from asking questions.

But because no one's villain lived in downtown, only common murderers and theives and rapists, no one really knew about conditions there. In his dream, Adam had looked through the windows of the houses (open, to let in the cool night air, with mosquito nets if they were _lucky_ ) and he'd been horrified. Parents down here beat their children, raped them, used them as slaves instead of treasured family. Not that some parents in uptown didn't do that too, but like the... _Assault_ that Ben had almost seen when he was looking at the map as a ten year old, most heroes looked away before they really _saw_ anything. Tonight, Adam saw everything.

Rinsing his face off, he growled. It was just a dream, just a figment of his imagination. There was no way on Earth that anyone could treat their kids like that, and he was convinced he'd just been riled up by that Gothel girl's comments on the news when she arrived from the Isle, talking about how her mother tried to kill her and Mal had saved them all at one point or another. It was all a ploy for pity, he thought. An impossible story from a known liar.

Nothing more than that.

* * *

It was the first official meeting of the coven in months, ever since Mal and her inner circle had left the Isle for bright and golden Auradon.

"So, what have you been up to while we were gone, oh glorious leader?" Freddie teased, while eyeing the luxurious dorm that Jay and Carlos shared. The boys' dorm was bigger, so they held the meeting here, and Mal glowed with pride as she opened Carlos' wardrobe to a magically expanded workroom and gave them the tour.

"Welcome to my new temporary Auradon workshop." Mal explained, and indicated Evie's potion lab to the side, all assembled from parts and pieces nicked from the old chemistry lab that had been disused, ever since _dear_ King Ben had paid to have a whole new state of the art classroom outfitted for the students.

"What's the ritual you've got set up?" Hadie asked, pointing to the lines and symbols that were laid out in the middle of the room. Evie smiled, and she was the one who answered this time, giddy with excitement.

"The Devil's Gate."

The three new arrivals reacted with various levels of shock and surprise. Mal had talked about this ritual before, had even drawn up a rough draft schematic for it, but she'd never settled on certain aspects, and it required such a power level that it just wasn't feasible on the Isle. But no one could deny that it was theoretically the most powerful ritual they'd ever attempted.

In the center of the room, was a violet-painted trapezoid that sparked with magic. There was a straw effigy within the coffin-like trapezoid, with its larger part near the dummy's head, and smaller part by its feet. Even the newest arrivals recognized one of King Adam's well-known royal blue ties around the effigy's neck, with a golden embroidered Beast Family Crest as the identifying marker. Around the top of the trapezoid was a semi circle of exactly seven stones, each painted with a rune in the same magical violet ink that had painted the trapezoid. On either side of the trapezoid was a golden cross, painted on the ground. To the right was a normal one, and to the left, an inverted one.

"This is... Impressive..." Ginny murmured, leaning down to get a better look at the runes. The effigy looked to have been splattered with blood, and it smelled of rust and pepper. "Did you use war water on the straw doll? That's almost overkill."

"Nothing is overkill when it's life or death stakes." Mal answered, somewhat bitterly. "Besides, I've never done magic this side of the barrier before, and I wasn't sure how much to use. There was only the four of us to charge the ritual after all."

Freddie recoiled at the smell. War water was traditionally a voodoo potion, but she'd taught it to Mal, who might have been the first fae to ever learn her family's closely guarded recipe.

 _Three rusted nails in a bottle of water. Salt of the earth, cayenne pepper. Wait for the water to get good and rusty and red, like blood. Shake well, and put it on your enemy's threshold, or drip it on their footprints, or splash it in their face like acid, and it's the magickal equivalent of declaring war with all the armies of your friends on the other side._

"We're here now, Mal." Hadie smiled, cracking her knuckles. "We're here, and we'll help charge it again. Since it's still here, I assume it's a perpetual ritual that _can_ be charged again?"

"Yep." Jay replied, yawning, and glancing at the ritual area like it had personally offended him. "Unfortunately, we can't tinker with it now. We've got _school_ to go to."

"How are we supposed to... _Act_ around them?" Ginny asked hesitantly, and with no small amount of contempt in her voice. There was no denying the fact that she looked down on these kids who'd lived a sheltered life, and who'd spoken about Mal and Evie and Jay and Carlos when they first came over on their talk shows, broadcast even to the Isle over ANN. If one of them made an effort to treat her like a human being and not like a plague or an endangered animal from the zoo, she might change her mind, but until then, she would sneer at them in the privacy of the dorms to her heart's content.

"Act afraid, like traumatized little kids who can't quite understand the world they've been thrust into." Carlos murmured, smirking off into the distance, as if recalling his own first day. "Talk about how bad life on the Isle was, if it benefits you, and take no shit from anyone. They expect a certain level of snippiness and sarcasm from us."

At that pronouncment, the new arrivals relaxed a little.

"Good." Freddie snorted. "I don't think I can act all that well. I ain't a brown-noser like _some people_."

Evie raised her eyebrows. "Something happened?"

"Celia attacked again, the day we got Ben's proclamation." Hadie replied, examining her nails with an air of disinterest. "Freddie's been kind of pissy that it seemed like she was running away when we left."

"Hey, shut your fucking mouth." Freddie called from the other side of the group, and Mal rolled her eyes, holding up two hands for silence as her eyes glowed a neon warning.

"Listen up, bitches and bastards." Mal announced, using their personal gang slang for ladies and gentlemen. (Because people on the Isle could have a code of honor, but not even Evie could be considered a proper lady.)

"We're all here today because I have a plan. I've _always_ had a plan, even when you all only had each other." Mal looked to every face in the room, and saw that they were listening. "In all my years as leader of this group, I've never steered you wrong. Now it's time for you to trust me. You fuck up my plan, and I'll make you regret being _born_."

Not one of them, even her closest friends, doubted that she would do it, and none of them would let her down. Not only because they owed her their lives (they were _villains_ , a life debt was easier to ignore than a broken promise), but because they each wanted to be here, their own little slice of paradise, and no one would keep them from it.

"Please pass the message on to Dizzy for me." Mal smiled softly at the end of her speech. "About how to behave here in Auradon, I mean. Even though she isn't a member of the coven, she's still in our gang, and under my protection."

"I'll make sure of it." Freddie replied. She was rooming with Dizzy for this year, when technically the younger girl should be in a different dorm. The staff didn't want to separate the new Isle arrivals though, so Dizzy was currently rooming with the older students.

"Good luck on the first day of school." Evie chirped, with a mischeivous smirk. "This time, you'll actually need to pay attention in your classes to pass them."

Her words were met with a terrible chorus of groans.

* * *

Jane had such great potential, Mal thought, as they sat together in the library for their free period. They seemed to be working together on algebra, but Mal was really helping Jane channel her fae magic. They were two different species of faery, she and Jane, but despite the fundamental difference in magic of the seelie and unseelie courts, the same basic principles applied. Mal could sense in Jane's aura that her meditation had been working, and the magic she'd been fighting to suppress her whole life was beginning to bubble to the surface, wild and chaotic.

 _Is this what_ my _magic would be like, if I was never sent to the Isle?_ Mal thought, and the words crept into her stomach like ice water. Ever since she'd gotten to Auradon, casting spells had been easier, but she felt so drained, and her magic wasn't like Jane's - like a rolling, living, _angry_ thing, with mana to spare and leaping to her call whenever she wanted it. Mal's magic was more of a slow poison, a building rage, a toxic grudge that never went away or lessened, no matter how many years were put between it and the event that had created it. Jane had so much fucking raw power that her problem was keeping the damn stuff under control, and Mal was deeply jealous of her.

 _I could be like that too, if Adam hadn't robbed me of my birthright._ She couldn't help but think, and the envy whispered in the back of her mind like a devil on her shoulder. _(Her own magic levels suddenly spiked, the runes on the Devil's Gate lit up, and across Auradon, King Adam was struck with the worst case of heartburn he'd ever experienced.)_

"I get the sense you're not exactly pleased to be here." Jane murmured, just when Mal was in peak brooding-mode, and getting ready to excuse herself. "I... I don't blame you. I'm probably an awful student."

"You're really not." Mal sighed. "I taught everyone in my group of friends on the Isle, and you show the most raw talent out of anyone I've ever _met,_ let alone _taught._ "

"If that's the case, I'd hate to see how you treat the talentless ones." Jane quipped dryly. It wasn't that she didn't believe Mal - that girl rarely joked about anything, and she was proud to be able recognize her sarcasm. That last statement contained none of her patented snark, so Jane could confidently say that her purple-haired classmate was actually impressed with her. It didn't explain how grumpy she was acting.

"It really isn't you, Jane. It's just..." Mal searched for a metaphor that she could understand. "You know malnourished children? I know there are none in Auradon," Or so they'd have you believe.

"But just imagine it for a moment. Picture Carlos. He wasn't fed nearly often enough as a child, and because of that, he'll probably never grow to his full potential. He'll always be... _Stunted_." Mal explained.

"Like a plant that doesn't get enough room to grow." Jane murmured. "If it's roots can't expand, it can't get bigger."

"That's how my magic is, because of how I grew up behind the barrier." Mal swallowed, and stared up at the ceiling, her favorite trick to keep tears from falling. "Stunted. I'll never be as powerful as you, even though I'm the heir to the Unseelie court. I should be as strong as you are."

"Is that why you don't hide your pointed ears or the gleam in your eye when you feel the magic?" Jane asked, feeling the ends of her newsboy haircut that hid her fae ears, and the lumpy blue dress that kept her wings from getting crunched against her.

"It's part of it." Mal swallowed when her voice cracked, and she forced a smile. "You have wings, right?"

"Yeah." Jane muttered. "I hate them."

" _Don't_." Mal hissed with malice. "Be glad you have them. You're _lucky_. Some of us were _denied our birthright_ because of _your_ mother's magic."

"I - I -" Jane sniffed. "I thought you just forced them under your clothes, like I do -"

"Oh please." Mal laughed, clear and pure like a bell in the winter, when it echoes in the valley long after the bell ringer has left. It bounced around just like that in Jane's mind, and made her scalp tingle. "If I had wings, I wouldn't be able to hide them if I wanted to. They'd be longer than my arms, mottled brown like my mother's, or Raven black, like my uncle Diaval's. They'd be big enough for me to soar into the air, and not just for decoration."

"Mal, please." Jane whimpered. "I'm so tired of being plain and average. You might not have wings, or the same volumes of mana that I have, but you almost don't even _need_ magic to do what you do!"

"First things first - you're gonna have to stop whining and simpering like a baby." Mal explained, eyes flashing with magic. "I understand it's hard, life is hard for all of us in different ways, but you can't show that it hurts."

Jane's eyes were swimming, and Mal tilted her chin up.

"Look at the ceiling without moving your head, and try not to blink." Mal smiled, a bit more gently now. "My mother taught me how to keep from crying when I was very young."

Jane did as she was told, and obeyed Mal's orders, also recalling what Evie had told her about putting on a smile, even when you didn't feel like it.

"A big part of your problem, Jane," Mal began almost conversationally, trying to ease into her next topic. "Is that you have too much power with no where to go. It just so happens that I have a little project in mind that could use a little flair from a talented fairy."

"It isn't dangerous, is it?" Jane asked warily.

"Would that make a difference?" Mal asked, raising a violet _A/N: This chapter contains non-graphic Isle awfulness. If you can name the obscure New Jersey Cold Case that inspired the Devil's Gate Ritual, you'll get_ _ **massive**_ _internet brownie points. I apologise, as always, for the delay, real life is rough; but rest assured that this story will be finished, despite the sporadic updates._


	15. Daydreams

_A/N: This chapter was insanely hard to write, largely because the death of Cameron Boyce wrecked me a little, and made it hard to write Descendants without being very sad. May his memory be a blessing._

 _If anyone is interested, I was inspired out of my writer's block by the Lana Del Rey song "National Anthem" which really influenced the Ben/Evie moments. This chapter also marks the beginning of my use of a lot of fairy tale elements from the traditional versions of the famous stories compiled by the Brothers Grimm.  
_  
 _To those who've been asking: No, Hades will NOT be Mal's father in this story, though I want to work it into a later story eventually. I've already firmly established him as a doting father to Hadie, and I can't accept that THIS Hades would have walked out on Mal and not fought for custody of her. Besides, he's very in love with Persephone, and since she's here on the Isle in this story, I can't see him having an affair. Rest assured, I'll unpack all those issues in a different story later on._

* * *

 **Present Day: 35 Days After Coronation**

* * *

 _ **"**_ ** _If you were less pretty I think I should be very much afraid of you_** _ **."**_

 **\- Joseph Sheridan LeFanu** ** _, Carmilla_**

* * *

King Adam hadn't been seen in the news for almost a week. That didn't seem like a big deal, but the Beast dynasty was _Auradon royalty,_ the darlings of the USA, and Ben had been exposed to the paparazzi every moment of his public life ever since he was a baby, and the only exception was at school, because the walls of Auradon Prep were warded against outsiders without the proper paperwork. In short, it was extremely odd that no one had seen him outside of the palace or the council building in days, and no one had spoken to him but his family and counselors, and even Ben was left out of the loop, only catching odd glances of his father as the media caught him going to and from work.

Mal smirked as she tossed aside the society pages, ignoring the sound of flipping pages as Evie sought out the fashion section. The rumors were running wild, speculating on the sudden silence, and the reporters called out every wild possibility, from a sudden stroke, to a sinister terminal illness, to a bout of amnesia or a long-lost illegitimate child to threaten the succession.

Every possiblity but the one that mattered. There wasn't even one rumor of magic, or that Mal herself might have been the cause of the illness. After all, she slayed a dragon for Auradon, she was their magical little fairy, "one of the _good ones_."

"How is everyone adjusting?" Carlos asked, raising an eyebrow. He recalled their own first night in Auradon, when he was so nervous he threw up all the sugary food he'd eaten in the limousine and kept looking over his shoulder like someone was going to stab him in his sleep. He and Jay slept in the same bed because it made them both feel better to have somebody else watching their back, and Ben looked at them oddly when he came to wake them up.

"Hadie's already been harrassed by the headmistress to join her little queer conversion club." Mal replied, sneering at the thought of soft Mrs. Fairweather who thought Hadie needed _her_ help. "For the most part though? Everyone was totally taken in by Ginny's _touching_ interview. The new girls have been visited by at least half the student body now. Everyone wants to help the poor mistreated villain kids."

"I'm kinda jealous, to be honest." Jay sighed. "We didn't get such a warm welcome until after coronation."

"To be fair, we weren't really trying either." Evie smiled warmly as she glanced up from the magazine. "We were still trying not to get attached back then."

She remembered how they were still going to go after the wand then, and they were scared of getting emotionally invested in school kids who might get _killed_ when their parents came back.

And it had been _so_ hard not to get attached to Ben. Evie recognized him as soon as she saw him, despite never having met him before - her magic hummed appreciatively within her chest as it resonated with his very bones. He had a look in his eyes, the look of a child who was desperately trying to gain his parents' approval, who was well mannered and impeccable because it was expected of him, who was raised to be a little adult from the moment he could toddle because his parents had piled all their hopes and dreams onto his shoulders.

She saw a boy who was raised just like _she_ was, and it showed.

Belle and Adam would _never_ acknowledge that they had raised their son the same way the Evil Queen had raised her daughter (and true, they probably used less corporal punishment and verbal abuse), but that didn't make it any less true. Mal had also been raised to be a queen, but it was different - if anything, the fae queen was like a warrior goddess, with none of the airs of Auradon that Ben and Evie had been memorizing since before they could read.

Mal's voice snapped Evie out of her own mind as a sixth sense told her she was being asked a question.

"Do you think we're ready to bring Ben and Jane into the rituals?" Mal asked intently. Evie was usually the best judge of character (with the exception of the _Chad Incident_ ), and she mulled it over for a bit, turning it around in her mind before she replied.

"I think Ben would do anything for you." Evie ventured. She wished Ben would do that for _her_ , but she couldn't bring herself to believe that he loved her the way he loved Mal. To be perfectly honest, she thought he was just humoring Mal when he told her he wanted the both of them. "But I think we shouldn't include him in the ritual that will eventually kill his father. It would be... Unnecessarily cruel."

"I see." Mal replied, looking just slightly disappointed. "And Jane?"

"She isn't ready for ritual magick." Evie answered quickly. "She might have a nervous breakdown, or even worse - rat on us."

"I think you underestimate her." Mal retorted.

"I'm with E on this one." Carlos muttered. "Jane may be desperate, but she's also naive and easily influenced. We can't throw her in the deep end like that."

"What would you suggest?" Mal asked earnestly. Carlos was the best of them at manipulating others - it was what gained him the moniker of _callous_ on the Isle.

"I think you need to dangle something irresistible in front of her, something she can't live without. It would be best if it was something she can only get from you, and something that she can't tell any adults about for fear of reprisal." Carlos explained. "Like something _magic_ \- she wants it so badly, but she'd never be able to tell her mother about it, and you're the only one who can teach her. That way, she gets hooked - she won't turn on us, because we'll cut her off, and she won't tell anyone because she's already being watched like a hawk after the _wand incident_."

Mal smiled wickedly at Carlos' answer. "That's devious, DeVil."

"What can I say?" He smirked, with his messy hair falling over his eyes as he winked playfully. "I'm not considered a genius for nothing."

"You know what? I just got the best idea." Evie giggled.

"Enlighten us, princess." Jay encouraged her with a smile.

"I want revenge on Chad for using me the way he did. You know what Jane needs to boost her confidence? A boyfriend."

"And? I'm not putting two and two together here." Mal muttered.

" _And_ , we show Jane how to make the love potion cookies, and _encourage_ her to give one to Chad. Audrey the backstabbing bitch loses her boy toy, Chad finds out how it feels to be used, and Jane gets to feel appreciated for once. We already know that Auradonians don't have a fool-proof way to check for love spells."

"You're right!" Mal grinned, already lighting up with excitement. "If they did, they'd have used it when the _crown prince_ suddenly dumped his girlfriend and started acting stupid, wouldn't they? If they weren't suspicious with the King, of all people, why would they suspect _Chad_?"

"Not to mention, he _already_ acts completely brain-dead." Evie snorted.

"About that, it was... Very _noticeable_ when Ben was spelled." Carlos noted. "I know they don't have a plan in place to check, but I'd rather be more subtle anyway, just in case."

"According to my spell book, it isn't actually supposed to be so... Potent." Mal laughed a little sheepishly.

"Is that why you looked so _shocked_ when Ben broke out into song?" Jay laughed, recalling the look on her face when he asked her to coronation on one knee after the tourney match.

"Yeah," Mal chuckled. "I think it might have been the addition of chocolate chips, actually. In any case, it's the perfect bait for Jane. She wants so badly to be cared for."

It reminded her faintly of how she felt on the Isle, how she would do anything for her mother's approval, anything to take that world-weary sneer off of her face for a moment. It was the one way in which villain kids and hero kids were similar - they both had such parents, bigger than life with shoes to fill that overwhelmed them.

"In any case, we don't really need Jane for the ritual right now." Jay noted. "Now that Hadie and Freddie and Ginny are here, we'll have enough power. Having an extra would make the number eight, actually, and it isn't as arithmetically sound as seven, anyway."

"Alright then. So we're agreed on the next phase of the plan?" Evie asked, making a note in her personal memo book (an old notebook she'd had ever since the Isle.)

"Help Jane get Chad drooling over her," Mal explained.

"Super-charge the ritual and give Adam a taste of his own medicine." Carlos added.

"Scout Auradon for support from the commoners and other royals." Jay finished.

"And we'll succeed, because I _will_ it." Mal concluded the pep talk, and put her hand forward. "Because we're rotten."

" _Rotten to the core!_ " They all shouted as one - one voice, one goal, one leader: Mal, who brought them all together.

* * *

"Attention!" The loudspeakers that took up space in every room in Auradon Prep all crackled to life with a pleasant little chime. "Could Ginny Gothel please come to the office? Ginny Gothel, can you please come to the front office?"

"What do you think they want me for?" Ginny asked, looking up from a thick novel when she heard the loudspeakers gasp with static. She had always loved to read - it was one of her only hobbies during her childhood locked in a tower. She was amazed when she stepped into the library in Auradon Prep and saw just how many novels actually existed in the world. The only library on the Isle was locked, and you had to bribe the Headmaster of Dragon Hall to get inside. Ginny always read whatever she could get her hands on.

"There's no way they know what's going on." Hadie breathed out, carefully maintaining her calm. "As long as we don't freak out, it'll stay that way."

"But what could they _want_? I haven't done anything wrong?" _That they know of..._

"I bet you made a C on your remedial goodness homework, and the Headmistress wants to make sure you don't decide to take over the world." Hadie teased. They both knew how easy it was to pass that class with flying colors.

"Please." Ginny rolled her eyes. "Maybe Fairy Godmother thinks that stealing candy from babies is evil, but she's never been to the Isle. Much worse things have happened to babies."

Hadie smiled fondly, and her hair lit up in response, curling and red like blood in the water. She'd gotten Ginny's mind off her worries, and that was all she wanted.

"Now, go get 'em Gin!" Hadie called out as she shoved her girlfriend to the door.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." The Gothel girl rolled her eyes and headed out to face the unknown.

At the head office, she saw a person waiting for her, a person who was both familiar and unfamiliar. Looking at her was like looking at an older sister, and Ginny felt like she knew her from somewhere, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

"Someone came to meet you, Ginny," Fairy Godmother gushed happily, and pushed the new arrival forward to greet her. "It isn't very often that we allow outside visitors to the hallowed halls of Auradon Prep, but I wanted to make an exception, since you missed our last family day."

Ginny had been told about the fiasco that was family day, and she wasn't sure why she should feel bad about missing out on it. For the first four who came over, it was like being interrogated by the heroes of their parents stories, and Ginny had little desire to meet Rapunzel. And then, she looked a little bit closer at the young woman who'd come to visit her, and she recognized the resemblance, from the old photos hidden away in her mother's attic.

Despite her short cut, chesnut colored hair, this girl was Rapunzel. Her step-sister.

"Can we talk?" The woman asked, looking sweet and kind, and happy and _vibrant_.

"This is Rapunzel," Fairy Godmother said, unhelpfully. The young women ignored her as their eyes met, and something passed between them like a summer morning - bright and dewy and short. Like a firework that illuminates everything in the night for a glorious second of thunder.

"Y-yeah." Ginny breathed out, carefully. Cautiously. "Yeah, we can."

"Might we go somewhere private?" Rapunzel asked Fairy Godmother quietly, and the woman nearly tripped in her haste to lead the way to a quiet conference room.

"Ah, bibbidy-bobbity, right this way!" She exclaimed, and it made Ginny want to hurl.

 _Thanks for ruining the mood with your stupid catchphrase_ , Ginny thought harshly as she stepped into the room after Rapunzel, and thankfully, _blessedly_ , Fairy Godmother left them _alone_. After the connection between them was broken, Ginny couldn't get it back again, and wasn't sure she wanted to. She didn't want to get attached to the stupid girl that her mother had always compared her to. She didn't want to feel anything for the woman she had learned to hate as the magical, obedient daughter she could never measure up to.

 _(Rapunzel never measured up to it either, but until Flynn Rider showed up, she never questioned Mother Gothel the way Ginny always had)_

"Does she still make chestnut soup?" Rapunzel asked shyly, tentatively. "It used to be my favorite."

"Yeah." Ginny replied simply. "There wasn't much food on the Isle, but mom was one of the only villains who dared to brave the dark forest to gather the nuts - I remember lots of autumns when that was all we ate."

Rapunzel seemed a little taken aback by that, but Ginny didn't notice as she usually did. She didn't think much about her days with her mother, and thinking about it made her... Hesitate, in a way she didn't fully understand.

She didn't mention that she hadn't eaten that soup in years, since she'd run away from home as child, back when her mother thought it would be a good idea to _murder_ her.

Evie _could_ have made it, since she and Jay loved to cook, and she often went into the forest to gather herbs, but it was rumored that Gothel had put a curse on the chestnut grove, so that she was the only one who could gather them.

Quietly, sadly, Rapunzel spoke again, with her eyes full of pity.

"Ginny," she asked softly, raising her eyes just a bit, to meet the younger woman's expression. "Would you like to be a Fitzherbert?"

She could have laughed herself _sick_. Rapunzel knew _nothing_.

Despite everything her mother had done, Ginny Gothel was _proud_ of her name. The name was derived from _Visigoth -_ what the Coronans called the invaders who came down from Bavaria in ancient times. Bavaria, then called the Black Forest, was the home of _witches,_ the cradle of magic, the land that the Evil Queen had once ruled for the _sole purpose_ of freeing witches and warlocks from persecution. Gothel was a strong name, a _witch_ name.

And _Fitzherbert_ was a surname shared by a _princess_ and a _thief_ , a name so pathetic that the man had called himself ' _Rider_ ' for years, just to run away from it. She _hated_ it.

"I'd love that." Ginny said, looking away as if she was shy, when really, she hoped Rapunzel wouldn't hear the half-hearted lie. She wanted the power of being associated with a "good" light-aligned Auradon family. Even if Mal and the others got thrown out on a whim of the royals, Ginny could ride on her connection with Rapunzel, who cared about her at least enough to make her a real member of the family.

It was a means of survival. That was all.

"Oh, oh, thank you Ginny. I-" Rapunzel started to cry, and Ginny heard it in her voice, so she snapped her head up with a start, to see what was the matter. "I - I don't even know your full name! If I want to adopt you into our family, I need to know it, for - for the paperwork."

"Virginia Aradia Gothel." Ginny intoned. She had never told anyone her name before, and she wasn't sure why she was telling Rapunzel now. She went by Ginny on the Isle, because that way, no one knew her real name. A name had power, as Rumplestiltskin would easily tell you. Every part of her name meant something, was chosen methodically, because her mother was a witch, and names were powerful.

 _Virginia_ , because her mother wanted Ginny to be a virgin for as long as possible - virgin blood was better for rituals. _Aradia_ , after the first Coronan witch, daughter of Diana and Lucifer. It was a traditional Coronan witch name, and her mother had almost named her _Laverna_ , after the witch-patron of theives. Aradia was more powerful though, Aradia who learned the first magicks. Finally, _Gothel_ , a daughter of the gothic invaders from Bavaria. It was a strong name, a good name for a witch who wanted to invade another land and take it for her own. It was a name, that when examined magically, felt round like the moon, and sharp like the toothy maw of an apex predator.

It was not a name that fitted with the syllables and squirming lines of Fitzherbert.

"That's a very pretty name." Rapunzel sniffed, snapping Ginny from her nervous thoughts as easily as a snap of her fingers. And then Rapunzel said something very unexpected.

"I was named after a cabbage."

Ginny laughed harder than she thought possible, and begged Rapunzel to tell her the story.

It was a warm and pleasant afternoon.


	16. Life and Death

_Note: The magic ritual used in this chapter is not a_ real _ritual, per se, but is based upon my years of research into occult practices of MANY spiritual paths. It is loosely inspired by the calling of the four watchtowers._

 _Evie's path is inspired by Norse and Germanic witchcraft._

 _Ginny's is inspired by Italian and Dianic Witchcraft._

 _Hadie's is inspired by Greek mythology and Greek pantheon-based witchcraft._

 _Carlos' magic is inspired by Goetic and Solomonic Witchcraft._

 _Jay's is based on Egyptian mythology and magick (partially because Agrabah as seen in the animated movie seems inspired by both Egypt and Arabia)._

 _Mal's is based on Celtic gods and Arthurian lore._

 _Freddy of course, was inspired by voodoo, a very real spiritual path that I tried to portray correctly as well as I can within the confines of a fictional story. The voodoo portrayed in this story is more accurate to life than the portrayal in TKaD._

* * *

 **Present Day: 36 Days After Coronation**

* * *

 **"It is not enough _to_ pretend _that your wax image is the person you want to_** ** _bewitch; you must make a real connection. That is the whole art of_** ** _magic, to be able to do that;"_**

 **\- Aleister Crowley, _Moonchild_**

* * *

Mal and Jane were together for another magic practice session, and it was going very well, better than Mal had hoped. Evie was off on another, equally important mission, and Ben had gone with her. It was sort of a date, and Mal hoped that time alone would help them figure out how they felt about each other, without Mal hovering around and confusing them. It was easier when they were both sharing Mal - Ben and Evie worshipped her, and seemed to be content with the way things were, but they'd both agreed to try making it a real three-part relationship, where Ben and Evie loved each other as much as they loved Mal. It would take time to get up to that point, but the groundwork was already there. They had more in common than their love of the color blue, and they'd had chemistry since day one.

Mal forced herself back to the lesson with Jane, which was taking place in the kitchen - the same kitchen where Mal created the first love spell.

"So this is what made Ben go cuckoo for a while, huh?" Jane asked stirring the mixture _deosil. Deosil_ meant 'counter-clockwise', but it was used long before the invention of clocks, back when the only way to tell time was the passing of the sun. _Deosil_ meant drawing things together, mixing and blending, and making things new.

"Yeah. At first, it was so ridiculous, I thought for sure that someone would notice, but apparently it's normal to break out into song around here." Mal quipped, rolling her eyes.

"It's encouraged." Jane laughed. "As a way to explain how we're feeling."

Mal made a fake gagging noise, and rested her head on her hand, elbow propped against the stainless steel counter.

"Are you really okay with this Jane? I... I know you weren't raised the way I was. You see the world differently, and I don't want you to regret it later."

She was mostly lying through her teeth, because she needed Jane's power, and she wanted Chad to _suffer_ for what he'd done to _her_ Evie. But Jane, as always, surprised her. There was a sharpness, a coldness in her eyes that was so lonely, and familiar.

"I'm more sure than I have ever been about anything." Jane replied. "Did I ever tell you that Chad and I used to be friends?"

"No, I didn't know..." Mal replied softly.

"We grew up together, since my mother was friends with his mother. It happens a lot with people who went through the same stories together." Jane explained, very evenly, and calmly, even though she was breaking inside. Mal was reminded keenly of her mother, and how she had become 'friends' with Jafar and Cruella and Grimhilde because of their shared experiences.

"But when he got older, I grew into my magic. And if that wasn't bad enough, he grew handsomer and taller every day, and I had to work harder to hide my faerie-ness." Jane explained, and she set the bowl down, trembling too hard to hold it anymore. "I had to start wearing these big dumb dresses to hide my wings, and cut my hair to lay perfectly over my ears, and suddenly, I was too ugly and plain and weird to hang out with him any more. By the time we got to fifth grade, he told me..."

Jane's voice broke, and a single, hot tear fell into the mixing bowl before she could stop it.

"He told me, we couldn't be friends any more," More tears came, and Mal felt something odd. Something she'd never felt for someone outside her coven.

She felt deep, heartwrenching sympathy. It was the same way she felt when Uma slapped her on the docks as children. When she'd been called a _dyke_ by her best friend. Mal stood up from her seat, and wrapped Jane up in her arms.

"Jane." She whispered, and the other girl looked up with eyes as blue and bright as the moon.

"We will make him _pay_." Mal growled under her breath, and those five words were all Jane needed.

* * *

"So, are you ready to do this?" Evie asked, and Ben took a deep breath, adjusting his tie and hair.

"As ready as I'll ever be." He laughed. "Why are you asking _me_ , anyway? I've been doing charity work since I was a baby."

"Because you wear your heart on your sleeve." Evie replied, more fondly than she originally meant to sound. It was one of her favorite things about Ben, how honest and kind he was. "I just want to really discover what people in Auradon feel, and..."

She trailed off. _And if they hate your parents, I don't want you to have a heart attack_. She thought.

"It's okay Evie." Ben smiled at her, and he meant it, like he meant every reassuring smile he'd ever given. "I want to know the truth, and if the truth is painful, I'm ready to accept that."

Mal had a theory that the villains weren't the only ones suffering in Auradon, and she wanted Ben and Evie to go out information-gathering under the guise of charity work. Because one of the best options for an invader (according to Mal's interpretation of Machiavelli) was to be seen as the outsider-hero, she hoped there was discontent for them to work with. Their plan didn't depend on it, but it would help a lot.

If Adam or Belle or anyone else commanded an army to attack their alliance, Mal wanted them to be fond of their three rulers and indebted to them, so they wouldn't turn on the good queen who'd been kind to them and gave them food when they were hungry, or the warrior queen who protected them from dragons and evil, or the benevolent king who listened to their woes when his father only turned them away.

So here they were, at a soup kitchen. Not only to donate money, food, and time, but to talk with people and be kind to them, and hear why they had fallen on hard times.

"If we're ready, then there's just one more thing to do." Evie nodded, in a way that felt like finality. She pulled the little potion bottle from her skirt pocket, and sprayed a single spritz on Ben and then herself. It was the charisma potion he'd used before meeting with his father, and it would help people open up to them without being as compulsive as the love potion had been.

Ben and Evie strode through the double doors with trays of food to hand out, and they looked like nothing so much as two kind-hearted kids who wanted to make a difference in their country, and the people _loved_ it.

"So, if you don't mind me asking, why are you here at a soup kitchen?" Evie asked, polite and patient, and with a voice that made people want to talk with her. Many of them were very proud, and didn't want to talk about their hardship, because they were so used to people telling them that they were poor because they didn't try hard enough. But unlike most Auradon princesses, Evie knew what it was like to be poor, and she knew how it could be through circumstances no fault of your own, or because you had made _one_ mistake, and never got to live it down.

"I was laid off after the housing bubble collapsed." An middle-aged man explained to Evie. "After Auradon was formed, the revenue from the union and from the seized property of villains made everyone rich. Then that money stopped coming in after the initial rush, and all of us who were hired to build new, bigger houses got fired. I went to school to learn _one_ skill, and all I know is carpentry. Now no one needs carpenters, except to build furniture and specialty items, and I'm no good at that."

"I made a mistake when I was a kid, and got sent to prison." Another man told Evie, and he looked nothing like a felon - aside from a few tattoos, he looked clean-cut and respectable. "I did my time, and thanked my lucky stars I didn't get sent to the Isle instead. If my crime had been ruled pre-meditated instead of a crime of passion, I'd be sent to the Isle in a heart beat, and if I lived in Charmington, I'd be there anyway."

Even Evie gaped in surprise at that. She knew that everyone on the Isle wasn't a major villain, but it had never occurred to her that instead of serving their time in a jail, some criminals just got sent to the Isle for the rest of their natural lives.

"So I did my time, and I learned from my mistakes in prison. Honestly? The structure and the routine helped me a lot." The man sighed, and then he laughed, a little bitterly. "But when I got out, I discovered that no one wants to hire a felon, even a reformed felon. And I'm required by law to inform any potential employers that I was in prison, and why."

"I was in between jobs, and I couldn't pay my bills." A woman explained to Ben as she ate her meal. "But once I was living out of my car, it was hard to find out about jobs I could apply for without the internet, and then I hadn't showered for days, and everytime I went to an interview, my clothes were wrinkled from being put on in the dark in my cramped little car, and I smelled like an unwashed monkey. Then my car got seized too, and... Now I live in a homeless shelter."

It went on and on, and by the end of the afternoon, Ben and Evie knew everything they needed to know. People left the soup kitchen with the distinct impression that someone out there cared about them. The king himself, and his girlfriend's best friend had come and listened to their problems, and compassionately reminded them that they were human beings, and worthy of a good life.

And for the conspirators who planned to take over Auradon, everything was falling into place.

* * *

It was a Saturday, and that meant that tonight, they were going to do a ritual.

The original four VKs and their new arrivals had told everyone that they planned to have a Villain-Kids only night, kind of a "Your Mom's an Evil Dragon" support group. Dizzy wasn't technically a member of the coven, but she couldn't very well be left out of VK night. She stayed behind in the dorm and watched movies while she served as lookout for the seven young people who were conducting a ritual in the magical room of a closet.

And when they entered the ritual space, they felt the magic stir within them, and Mal smiled.

"It's time."

They all sat in a circle, hands linked together, sitting cross-legged as if they were meditating. Mal led the ritual, as their coven leader. It was the way things had always been. When she sat at the head of their circle, eyes glowing alight with magic, and her hair blown around her in a windless breeze, they all fell in love with her a little bit, even the ones who weren't attracted to her _(Freddie)_ , even the ones who weren't attracted to women _(Carlos)_. And the ones who had loved Mal before fell in love with her again _(Hadie, Evie, Jay, Ginny)_ , because their magic called out to her in a way that resonated deep within them, running back and forth between them in currents, growing momentum and power when it bounced around inside their ribcages and the marrow of their bones.

"My will is the whole of the law." Mal intoned, and her hair shone like a sunset right before dusk; red and purple and shimmering with stars.

"Our will is the law, love under will." The others replied at the same time, their voices were harmony in the echoing room.

"By the power of seven, the will of seven." Mal began the next part of the spell, breathing deeply of the magic in the air, and letting it gather with her coven, massing together between them like a rolling, living thing. Far away, on the Isle of Lost, divorced from their coven, Uma and Harry felt the oddest tickling of power in the backs of their minds, but everytime they tried to focus, it slipped away. It was like seeing a shadow move in your peripheral vision, but once you turned to get a closer look, it seemed to be nothing. Back in Auradon, the other six chanted after Mal, as one voice.

"By the power of seven, the _mixing_ of seven." Every voice replied to Mal.

"The magic of seven, patrons above them, arrayed in glory." Mal called, and it was time to invoke the spirits and deities that each of their magicks associated with death, starting with the one to the left of Mal: Evie.

"I call forth Hela, who watches the dead. She who takes all, the shunned from Valhalla, I invoke her." Evie murmured quietly, and the air around her grew cold, and stale, and _dark_ , even though there wasn't any visible change. It was only her _aura_ that had darkened.

Next came Freddie, to the left of Evie.

"I call forth Baron Samedi, the original shadow man. Keeper of the dead, watcher of the crossroads, I invoke him." As she spoke the last words, Freddie threw her head back, and breathed out a wisp of smoke, as if she had taken a puff from a cigar, though she had none. There was an odd light in her eyes, and Evie could smell liquor on her breath, though Freddie never drank - it was all part of her invocation. More than any of them, when Freddie summoned her loas, she was possessed by them - it was how Voodoo worked, and the cigar smoke and alcohol was a well-known sign of the Baron's arrival.

Next was Ginny, to the left of Freddie, and even though she was a witch, her style of witchcraft was different than Evie's and different than Uma's and Harry's.

"I call forth Diana, the maiden, mother and crone. The lady of darkness, queen of the moon, I invoke her." Ginny intoned with her eyes closed, and when she opened them, they shone with the light of the harvest moon, and all around her there was darkness and light, cold and white like moonbeams.

Next came Hadie, to the left of Ginny. She smirked a little - it was odd to summon the aura of her father and mother like gods, when she only knew them as they were on the Isle, mom and dad.

"I call forth Hades and Persephone, the king and queen of the dead, guardians of the rivers of death. Rulers of the underworld, I invoke them." Her hair lit brighter than it had ever been before, and whipped around her face in a wind, like a phoenix that had just been reborn from the ashes. Her eyes glowed blue as coals in the center of a blaze, and all around her was the smell of earth and flame, and the things below the ground, waiting to grow.

Next came Jay, to the left of Hadie.

"I call forth Osiris, ever born, ever dying. He who guides souls across the river Nile, to the afterlife, I invoke him." And Jay showed his magic the least of all of them, but his aura was hot, like desert sands, and refreshing, like swimming in a pool after working in the sun. He felt young and virile, and full of life, and it nearly blew Carlos away, sitting to the left of him. He had to pull it together to call his own patron the way the others had. Jay had never had this kind of reaction on the Isle, even across the circle, Evie could sense that everything about him was golden and regal, and she saw him in an entirely different light than the boy who joked with her and played tourney on the weekends.

"I call forth Astaroth, destroyer of life." Carlos began, his voice wavering, before he hit his stride - his patron was the most chaotic, the most powerful, the most deadly. Just like Carlos, she was beautiful and strange, and delighted in chaos. "The Green Butterfly, Keeper of Mysteries, Prince of the Apocalypse, I invoke thee."

As he stated the last incantation, Carlos seemed to be cast in a pale green fire that flickered over his skin like an image from a projector. His eyes held a strange light that was uncanny, the kind of light that was uncomfortable to look at.

Finally, it came back to Mal, and they were all alive and crawling with magic, and a nimbus of golden light surrounded her, choking her on it, and making her eyes go wide with the _power_.

"I call forth _Morrigan_!" Mal nearly screamed, and they were so caught up in it all that they didn't even think to be glad that Mal had magically sound-proofed her workshop. They were too caught up in the magic to pull themselves out of it now, like a riptide that swept them under and back up again, only long enough to catch a breath.

"Queen of the Fae! Lady of the Lake! The one who pulled the boy-king to your bosom when he died, and hid yourself as Morgana when he needed you near him - Goddess of Ravens! Keeper of Magic and The Law! I invoke thee!" Mal screamed, her throat raw, like she had once screamed over a blood circle in an alley of the Isle of the Lost, like she had once screamed all night on the winter solstice, white and cold and broken into shards like an ice-covered lake.

"We invoke thee!" The others cried out in response, and the magic screamed around them like a real living thing, so thick they could feel it, and Mal's magic swept them all away, and kept them all rooted, taking their strength and making it stronger - making everything stronger, and halfway across Auradon, in a blue and golden suite, King Adam _screamed._


	17. Interlude I

For as long as she could remember, Audrey had lived in the quaint little castle called Rosemore, ancestral home of house Rosiers, her mother's people, who had wrested the land from the clutches of the _evil_ faeries generations ago. It was a beautiful castle, made of white sandstone, with gardens and gardens of roses, lined in perfect rows without end. Audrey spent a lot of her childhood getting lost in those rose gardens, peering out at her nursemaids and nannies from behind a curtain of leaves, and thorns that never stung, because it was Flora's gift to her fairy goddaughter, that no thorn would ever prick her finger.

She had never spent much time playing with her parents, because her mother was flighty and Grammie called her "hard to manage," because she'd been raised by faeries. Her father was very busy running the country, even though he was never meant to be King. He was a seventh son of a neighboring kingdom, and all six of his brothers were ahead of him for the throne in the land where he was born. As a result, he didn't always know what he was doing, and being too proud to ask his councillors for advice, he spent a good deal of time boarded up in his office, drinking the good brandy.

So when Audrey wasn't hiding from her nannies, she had lessons with Grammie Leah, learning all the things her mother never got to learn when she was exiled to the moorlands as a child. She learned which was the soup spoon and which was the teaspoon, and the difference between a dinner fork and a salad fork, and a dinner knife and bread-knife. She learned how to sit properly like a lady, with her legs crossed, or ankles crossed, with her knees always close together, as if something precious were between them.

She studied and danced, and practiced piano and baking, and all the other skills her Grammie said it was important for a princess to know. She did all this at first, because it was a way to get attention from her grandmother, the only family member who properly spent time with her. Then, she did it because she liked it, and baking, cleaning, sewing, and dancing made her feel feminine and graceful.

Many years later, after a dozen summers spent at Fairy Cottage, away from her classmates and friends, and isolated from the world, Audrey began to see it as her _duty_ to be the perfect princess, the best possible wife to her future husband. Because she overheard her Grammie talking to someone on the phone that summer, the summer she turned thirteen. Queen Leah spoke very low, and quiet, and Audrey had to strain to hear her words from the shadowed recess of the stairwell.

"A disgrace..." The words came softly, bitterly, creeping under the kitchen doorway like the smell of garbage in the summer time. "...And all thanks to that _faery bitch,_ that horrid witch-queen. The whole thing's ruined!"

Audrey gasped silently, hand to her mouth as she listened. She had never ever heard her grandmother curse before (it wasn't _proper_! A Queen didn't curse!), and Audrey had no idea who could be on the other end of the phone.

"Because of that _pixie twat,_ all my work for Aurora was gone! Out the window! It was a damn miracle she was married to a royal at all, there was no way I could arrange for a better match than that layabout _idiot_ , Phillip." Queen Leah scoffed into the phone. "Who would want a touched village idiot for a wife? After Aurora came back, she insisted to be called 'Briar Rose', she'd rather walk in the gardens than practice to be queen. She didn't know a _thing_ about etiquette, politics, religion, history - anything! She was hardly fit to be a chamber maid!"

Audrey slipped back against the wall, in shock. Everything she thought she knew about her family was... Well not a lie, per se. It was more like she could watch as her mother and father fell from their pedestals and became mere humans. Less than humans, they were so flawed and imperfect, and they had let her grandmother down. Audrey swore she wouldn't be like that. She would be the very best, most proper, most _perfect princess_ she could be.

What she heard next, only solidified her hopes and dreams.

"It's no matter though." Queen Leah muttered. "Audrey will be ready to take my place by the time she graduates. If she holds true, and I feel she can handle it, I plan to leave everything to her. Not her failure of a mother, and certainly not to that _insipid_ Phillip. Audrey alone will be the queen of Moorland."

Audrey alone.

Audrey alone.

Those words echoed in her mind with an insistent echo, she couldn't have forgotten it if she wanted to.

When Audrey turned fourteen, the very next year, she was sent away to study at Auradon Prep. It was partially to bring all new rulers of Auradon to the same academic standard of the capital state. It was also a chance for young royals to network, to meet each other and form alliances that would last long into adulthood. For Audrey, it was a chance to catch a husband.

"Remember, dear, always smile, even when you feel like crying." Grammie Leah explained as she fixed Audrey's collar, and straightened her skirt. "And make sure you are always presentable, and above reproach. No one wants a Queen who gets into trouble at school."

Audrey had a whole list of things she couldn't do - a list of things that would make her a less eligible wife and ruler. A list that would make her more like her failure of a mother.

 _A princess must not shout. A princess must not say obscene words, or make obscene sounds. A princess must always sit with her legs closed and crossed. A princess must look presentable, and clean. A princess must be demure and honest._

If she followed the rules, she could find a good husband, like her grandmother wanted. If she followed the rules, she might even get _Ben_ , who'd been her friend since childhood, and who could arguably be called her best friend.

 _A princess must not cause trouble. A princess should always be composed and kind. A princess must be graceful and elegant, and use her manners._

That was why it was so utterly shocking to Audrey when Mal arrived in Auradon, and broke every rule immediately.

She had no _concept_ of etiquette! She stuffed dinner rolls in her pockets at meal time, without even caring who saw! _(A left-over behavior from the Isle, when she was starving and had to hoard food for tomorrow.)_ She cursed loudly, and often, and received citations for it constantly during her first weeks in Auradon _(on the Isle, you cursed to prove you were bad enough, that you didn't care about the rules. It was a way to mark your territory and announce your presence)_. She sat like a boy, with her legs slung open, and sprawled almost obscenely over whatever furniture she could find _(she took up space the way a cat did when it fluffed out it's fur - to make herself seem bigger and more intimidating)_. She dressed like she'd rolled out of a garbage bin every morning _(she did - everything on the Isle was cast off garbage)_ , and she lied constantly, blatantly, and _outlandishly_.

And she _still_ ended up with Ben.

After so much work, all that effort and tears and practice, and all her hopes were stolen away by - by that Isle _tramp_! She called her grandmother in tears (it was part of why Leah was so hostile to Mal at family day) and she begged for help, but her Grammie had none. Clearly, the young prince had been bewitched, and _no one_ could fight against fae magic.

So she _settled_ for Chad Charming, who was handsome and vain, and almost _too_ easy to manipulate. She had never expected to marry for love, but she had hoped at least, to marry someone she could respect. Someone with the intelligence and experience to pull her kingdom back from the brink of disaster.

(A disaster that was brought on by a queen who wanted to play at being _faerie_ instead of doing her damn job, and a king who was a worthless seventh son, content to drink himself to death instead of working for his people.)

Curiously, it was that same autumn that her faerie godmothers: Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, revealed a secret that changed everything.

"There are four families in Auradon who are touched by the fae, linked to them by fate. They are as close to being faeries as humans can get." Merriweather explained with a grin.

"In the old days, they were often taken at birth, and replaced by changelings. Once the fae-blessed human had completed their training, they would return to their families at last, as a go-between of the two races." Fauna continued.

"We tried it with your mother, you see." Flora clarified, frowning. "But it didn't quite _take_. There are reasons for that, but it doesn't really matter to this explanation."

Audrey had wanted to know more - why was her mother so flighty? Was that because of the Fae, or was it just her nature? She didn't ask though, because a princess should never ask rude or prying questions.

(It was because Briar Rose was touched by the Unseelie, from the moment she was linked to Maleficent at her christening. She was tied to the _sign of the briar_ with the red thread of destiny, something no Seelie training could undo. No manner of tutoring or charms or bibbidy-bobbity-boos could change her, and the trying was what _broke_ her.)

"But for you, Audrey." Merriweather smilled, and wrapped her in a hug, stronger than any she had ever received from her grandmother. "For you, we will do it correctly. We will bless you with the flowers and animals, and the sky, which are our domain."

"Why are certain people Fae-touched, and not others?" Audrey couldn't help but ask.

"It is a blessing and a curse." Flora explained. "The Unseelie cause mischief for humankind, and by their mischief, connect our destinies. It is what happened once upon a time with Tinker Bell, who fell in love with Peter Pan, and in doing so, gave him the ability to draw from her magic. That is how he remained forever young."

"But it wasn't a blessing." Fauna added quickly. "It was a curse. They are linked forever by magic now, and Peter will never die, even though his wife, Wendy, will surely fade with age."

"The fairy who once came across Beast Castle might not have _meant_ any harm by teaching Adam a lesson," Merriweather continued with the theme.

"But she harmed his family nonetheless. The Beast line is forever tainted now, touched by the Fae curse." Flora explained, and Audrey gasped. They were both Fae-touched, two of only four families in all of Auradon.

(That they _knew_ of)

Merriweather continued, but Audrey could hardly see her through her tears.

"The last family, is that of Pinochio. He became a real boy through the blessing of the Blue Faerie, also called the Winter Lady, an illusive queen of the Seelie Court who rarely walks among humans."

"So you see," Flora sighed. "Two touched by Unseelie. Two touched by Seelie. In this way, we maintain the balance."

And Audrey saw everything laid out before her, like a massive chess board. Upon one side, the white queen, human (only human), but blessed by the Seelie Court. On the other side, the black queen (Mal _Mal_ **_Mal_** **_MAL_** ) born Unseelie, but _half human_.

Which of them would come out on top?

The red thread of destiny connected her to Mal, Audrey knew. It had connected them through their mothers, through the curse of the dragon and the blessing of the briar crown. They were two halves of the same coin, human and fae, Seelie and Unseelie.

"Just tell me what I need to do." Audrey whispered, and she acted like she wanted justice.

(But all she ever _really_ wanted was _power.)_


	18. The Rabbit

**_"And so they ran, three animals in starlight. A black otter. A tomcat. A rabbit._**

 **Me** ** _, thought Will_** **, I'm the rabbit** ** _._**

 ** _And he was white, and_** **much afraid."**

 ** _-_** **Ray Bradbury** ** _, Something Wicked This Way Comes_**

* * *

A/N _: This chapter has a rape mention, and a sort of graphic death. The creature encountered by King Adam in the other world is a Kath Hound, guardian of the Fae, and as far as I know, it's just a D &D monster._

 _As a side note, my writing style is very similar to/inspired by Ray Bradbury, who provided this chapter's quote. If you can, go read Something Wicked. It's a great end of summer book._

* * *

When Adam opened his eyes, he was alone. Still wearing the clothes he wore to bed. He rolled onto his back, and worked his way up to his feet. The room was pitch black, but in the darkness, he saw a line of thin light, like you'd see underneath the shadow of a door. The place was silent, eerily so. He wasn't in a dungeon - there was no sound of footsteps or creaking doors, or screaming prisoners, or dripping water. It was silent, and the walls were like dust. When he tried to touch them, he felt so unsettled, as if he had dipped his hand into black flour, getting all over him, and underneath his fingernails. He pulled his hand back, and shuddered. He could pass through the walls, probably, if the way his hand sunk in was any indication.

But the thought of that made him nauseous. He was _certain_ that doing such a thing would end badly.

So Adam made his way to the door, and pushed it open. The texture felt like polished wood, and it felt so normal when compared to the wall, that he was relieved. Then the door swung open, and there was nothing but a trail, lined by fireflies. He felt like a man who was standing in a field, unprotected, with a lightning storm raging all around him.

He seemed to walk forever, in this place with no end, and nothing ever changed. With every step, Adam grew more afraid, because he knew, instinctually, that he was prey here. His thought was confirmed, when he saw a shadow at the end of the hall that seemed even blacker than the darkness around him. It solidified as he approached - coalesced into something resembling a four-legged beast.

Then, the creature's head pivoted all the way around like an owl's, and Adam jumped back like a burned man, because the face on the beast was his own. He screamed, stumbling backwards, and covering his head with his arms to protect himself.

The killing blow never came, and cautiously, carefully, Adam removed his hands from his face and glanced nervously at the place where the beast had been. It was gone, leaving Adam to wonder if it had ever existed, or had always been a figment of his mind.

There was a door where the creature had stood, and it was the only way to go, if not backwards to his black cell. So Adam went forward, and prayed that the creature was well and truly gone.

He entered into an obsidian throne room, and the girl he saw sprawled over the throne made his blood _boil_.

"You!" The former King shouted, lunging for Mal, who laughed heartily and secured him in magical binds with a flick of her hand.

"This is _my_ domain, Adam. You are a guest here." Mal smirked.

"I should have known _you_ were behind this, you witch." The King retorted, and with another gesture, he was gagged.

"As a good guest, you should be _silent_ while your host is speaking." Mal sneered, and she leisurely stood from her throne and walked casually down to Adam's level, dragging him up to his knees so he could look at her as she taunted him.

"You know what's so ironic about this?" Mal laughed, just a little bit like her mother in a way she never would have noticed before now, with King Adam on his knees before her, a gag in his mouth, and _silent_ \- like the good boy he pretended he still was.

The former king of Auradon raised an eyebrow, and Mal was just a bit impressed by his patience. She'd expected him to lose his temper, like the _beast_ she knew he still was inside. Or cry like an Auradon child, sent to bed without dessert. But Adam just looked at her, and somehow, Mal felt that it was better that way. She'd have to work to coax the emotion out of him, and it. Would be. _Delicious_.

"The most ironic thing about this, is that I could have been _so many_ things _."_ Mal smiled softly, giving the impression of bitterness (even though she didn't regret who she became). "If I'd grown up with my mother on the moors, I would have had wings. I would have had a happy childhood, provided that the bastard king Stefan didn't _hunt_ my family for the rest of our lives."

A long-suffering sigh. She doubted Adam actually knew or understood the complex story of her mother and the royal family of Rosemore, so she didn't plan on taxing his poor brain too much with riddles and history lessons.

"Or how about this? If you took the children from the Isle as soon as they were born, I would have grown up here in Auradon. A sweet little girl, whose only difference was pretty purple hair and too-green eyes. You could have even adopted me yourself, King _Beast_." Mal smirked. Sighing as if she actually cared.

"You could have even _killed_ my mother when you got the chance." She leaned in close, breath on his face, smiling with _teeth_ , and _magic_. "If you'd finished what weak little Phillip started, I'd have never been born, and we wouldn't even _be_ here right now."

Mal laughed then, and Adam started to go pale, to lose the color from his face as he realized her full implications. It was exactly what Mal wanted. She wanted him to know what _he'd_ _done_ , before she killed him.

"But no. Instead, you left me, and countless other children on an Isle of rapists, murderers, and the worst of them all." Her gaze turned steely now. "What exactly did you think would happen, king? That we'd sit around a fire and sing _Kumbayah_ as we ate scraps and died from starvation and disease?

"Did you know Dizzy Tremaine was raped last year? She was _eleven years old,_ you _bastard_. _You_ put her there." Mal hissed, staring into Adam's eyes, and she was disgusted when he didn't even flinch.

 _He knew_.

He'd _always_ known what had happened on the fucking Isle, and he willfully turned a blind eye, like the selfish coward he had always been. Just the tarot card, Mal was death on the pale horse, and no one could keep secrets from death. She saw into his _soul_.

'What did you _think_ would happen?" Mal hissed, and she snapped her fingers to remove the magical gag. Instead of replying, the man merely looked at her, terrified and angry, and _helpless_. Finally, he spoke, and it wasn't what Mal expected. There were no pleas for mercy, or groveling for a second chance, or stoic bravery. There was only the weak voice of a man who was so poor with relationships he still didn't grasp the full weight of the situation.

He was still the entitled young man he'd been when he was cursed.

"Why are you telling me this?" Adam asked, looking up with confusion.

"Because before I kill you," Mal answered, coldly, cruelly. "I want you to know that everything, from the destruction of your family, to the crumbling of your kingdom, is _all your fault_."

Then she laughed, and in Adam's mind, she glowed with triumph, arrayed in righteousness, a god in glory, walking among men. She kicked him, hard, and he _felt_ it, even though he was between life and death, and he wasn't _supposed_ to feel it. She kept kicking him, bound and helpless, and she spat on his body as she turned to leave.

"Burn in _hell_ , you pathetic waste."

* * *

Queen Mother Belle awoke at exactly 3:00 in the morning, to the sound of her husband screaming, and his screams becoming slurred cries as he fought with his wife against an enemy who wasn't there, before he finally fell down dead. Belle screamed, and screamed, and Ben came running, falling to his knees in front of his mother, and pulling her into him to comfort her. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he knew from the moment he entered the room that his father was dead, and Ben's first job as King was his duty to his mother.

"Don't worry, mother. We'll call for Lumiere in a moment, and we'll get this all sorted out." Ben whispered softly into Belle's hair, and her wailing sobs quieted into hot, silent tears.

Lumiere was summoned, and then the royal doctor, and then the coroner. King Adam had died, not five minutes after the stroke of three _(the witching hour)._

"But he was screaming, he acted as if he didn't even know me!" Belle murmured, voice sore and eyes red from crying all morning.

"We won't know for sure until the autopsy, but I believe there was swelling in the brain." The doctor explained, kindly and patiently. "If that's the case, it wouldn't be uncommon for him to have hallucinations at the end."

Belle couldn't help it, hearing her husband spoken about so clinically caused her tears to return, and she cried into Ben's shoulder.

"Lumiere, please prepare a speech that I can read for the morning news. Rumors will get out about what happened, and fearful speculation is the worst possible thing right now." Ben slipped right into his King mode, as his life-long training kicked into high gear. "Someone wake Mal and Evie, and bring them here as well."

"I can understand Mal, Benjamin." Belle cautiously began, looking a little wary. "But do we really need to bring Genevieve into this?"

She was worried about bringing someone who wasn't (soon to be) family into such an intimate moment, but Ben was adamant. He really liked Evie, and their time together at the soup kitchen had showed him just how kind and diplomatic she was.

"Mal is my _best friend_ , mom, and Evie is a P.R. _genius_. They'll both be invaluable to me during this time of transition." Ben explained with a reassuring smile. "The most important thing right now is the kingdom, mother."

Belle was so proud of her son. She knew little about politics, only what she'd read in books. She was born a peasant, and her husband had kept her out of the diplomatic arena, because he had very old fashioned ideas about gender roles, and thought he was doing right by her, when he kept her from the scathing comments of the council chambers. It was part of why Adam had such a deep mistrust of Mal. She was a part of everything Ben did, and especially of the politics. Even though she didn't have any authority until she married Ben, she read everything she could about the laws of the land, and whispered in her boyfriend's ear about new policies and agendas. Belle was almost certain that the new arrivals from the Isle were entirely Mal's idea, but unlike her husband, she didn't think that was a bad thing.

Evie arrived first, and wrapped Ben in a sympathetic hug. Then, to her surprise, she turned to Belle, and knelt down in front of her with a pretty smile.

"How are you holding up?" She asked kindly, and when Belle imagined the daughter she'd never have, she acted just like this villain girl in front of her, and even her hair was the color of the Auradonian flag.

Belle folded Evie into her arms, and held her tightly.

"Thank you for being here." Belle whispered. "Ben seems to trust you, and I think his trust is not misplaced."

"I'm glad to hear it, ma'am." Evie smiled gently. "We've gotten close lately, and I'm glad that he considers me a friend."

"And nothing more than a friend?" Belle asked as she saw the way her son looked at the daughter of the Evil Queen.

"Mal is my best friend, and like a sister to me. I would never take something that was hers." Evie replied softly. That was good enough for Belle, and she didn't even realize that Evie had never directly answered her.

Mal arrived, mere moments later, and Ben held her in his arms, closing his eyes, and steeling himself for the days to come. He was now well and truly the king, not a provisional ruler, not a boy-king with limited authority until his graduation. He was the sole monarch of Auradon.

From her place beneath Ben's chin and muffled by his shoulder, no one saw Mal smile, victorious.

Ben gave his address by the time Auradon was watching the news over their morning tea. He stood proudly at the press conference, with Mal beside him, and Evie respectfully behind, with Belle composed at last, but pale from crying.

"It is with a heavy heart that I inform all of you, citizens of Auradon, that King Adam Beast passed away at three o'three this morning. An autopsy is being conducted to determine the cause of death, but foul play is not suspected." Ben smiled at the camera and delivered the more personal part of his speech. "You were all aware of my father's declining health, and thanks to my coronation upon my sixteenth birthday, he made sure I would be well prepared to rule in his stead.

"My father will be well missed, not only by his people, and his council, but by those closest to him." At that, Ben looked toward his mother, and Mal squeezed his arm comfortingly. A cheer rang out from the crowd, and Mal couldn't agree more.

"The King is dead! Long live the king!"

Long live the king _indeed_.


	19. The Wolf

**Present Day: 44 Days After Coronation**

* * *

 **"Maidens, like moths, are ever caught by glare / And Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair."**

 **\- Lord Byron, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage**

* * *

The funeral was held exactly a week after the former king's death. Ben made a short and heartfelt speech, and Mal was the perfect queen-to-be, allowing Belle to cry on her shoulder. Her dress was black, with lace that clung to her body like skin, and a veil that hid her eyes - it was the most natural Mal had felt since her arrival on the shores of Auradon. She felt like a creature of the shade, surrounded by dark chiffon and tulle that made her seem like an untouchable thing, like a specter seen in the long shadows just before the dawn.

They all filed past the casket, lowered into the moist dirt under the steady drizzle of rain. All four of the original Isle kids were there, because they were more or less Ben's family, ever since he took a risk and invited them into his home. He'd tried so hard to make them all feel welcome.

Evie stood next to Mal with a somber air of mourning, and inside, she rejoiced. Mal met Audrey's eye from across the crowd of mourners, and there was a hardness there, a coldness that was new.

All of Auradon mourned with Ben today, and all of the royal families on the council were represented at the funeral. Chad stood beside Jane, and he seemed more focused on her than on the proceedings. Because of this, Audrey was seen pointedly glaring at Jane when she thought the girl wasn't looking. Jane herself seemed to radiate magic, and happiness, and even though she cried as the casket was lowered, she felt distinctly light inside, like a single balloon in the dim morning, bright and shining and lighter than air.

This was their happily ever after, the ending they deserved. They had suffered so much, sacrificed so much to get here, and no one deserved this more than they did.

For all the somber overtones of the funeral, the feast afterwards was joyous, and Ben presided over it all with Mal and Evie by his side, and no one dared to mention it. It felt more like a party than a funeral reception, and it was hosted in the marvelous grand ballroom of Castle Beast. The original servants of the family and their descendants still worked for Belle and the late King, and Chip (the former teacup) was now the director of the tea service, taking orders and sending out tea that was perfectly tailored to everyone's tastes. It was said that he never forgot an order.

This was the first feast that the new arrivals had gotten to experience in Auradon, and it didn't disappoint. All laid out before them was the bounty of Auradon, with a soup-course of any kind of soup imaginable, from all the kingdoms of the union.

From Maldonia was Tiana's special gumbo, and Freddie ate it with relish. She asked Tiana's daughter Naomi why it wasn't as spicy as back home on the bayou, and the girl blushed under her dark skin, and replied that the whiter parts of Auradon had a hard time with spicy foods. So Freddie passed her a little bottle of hot sauce under the table, and they shared a secret smile.

There was lentil soup from Agrabah, a hearty dish that was almost a meal of it's own, and Jay could remember his dad making it with the dry beans that sometimes got sent over on the Isle.

From China came egg-drop soup with thin-whipped eggs in broth of savory chicken stock and soy-sauce. Dizzy had never tried it before, and she slurped it down, much to the chagrin of her tablemates, who had been taught to sip lightly and never slurp.

From Auradon itself, there was onion soup, dark and rich, with a fine crust of bread and cheese on top. Evie found it delightful, and Mal watched her out of the corner of her eye, piercing the bread layer to let the soup seep up to the surface with a happy little smile.

"Everything is new to her." Mal murmured, smiling.

"It's part of what makes her so beautiful." Ben nodded, and Mal blushed with happiness, smiling at his notice of them both.

From Denmark (Ariel and Eric's domain) came a kind of preserved mackerel soup that Mal wrinkled up her nose at, but she noticed that it was very popular among other royals, like the Arendelle party. From the frozen nothern country that Elsa ruled, there was a chilled Borsht that the queen ate with a gentle pattern of frost on her bowl.

There were many more, of course, but to describe them all would detract from the story, so suffice it to say that the new arrivals tried a bit of everything.

The main course involved entrees and dishes from every kingdom in the union. Dizzy looked at it all with hungry eyes, almost ready to cry with happiness. It was more food than she'd ever seen in her life, and she could hardly decide where to start.

After dinner came a brief reception, where Mal and Ben and Evie traveled among the funeral guests with grace and some of the best acting Auradon had ever seen.

"King Adam was like a surrogate father to me," Mal sniffled when she spoke to Aladdin. "I never had one growing up, you know, and he was always so kind to us."

It galled her to lie about his behavior, to lie about the way he'd wanted to send them back to the Isle the very fucking second they arrived. No one from Auradon really knew how much he'd done to make the Isle a hell on Earth, and until Mal was solidified in her power, they never would.

Elsa smiled slyly when they came to speak with her, and murmured under her breath.

"There's something going on with you three, isn't there? I can feel it."

Nothing in her voice hinted at malice, so instead of being afraid or frustrated, Ben merely smiled sheepishly and rubbed the back of his neck.

"We've been together for a month and a half now, and we're trying to ease into the transition." He sighed. "My father would never have allowed it, were he alive, so I'm not sure how my people are going to take it."

"Love doesn't always follow the rules." Elsa smiled again, and her eyes flitted over the crowds to her sister, who was making silly faces at Rapunzel from across the room. "But if anything, Auradon is built on the concept of true love. If you really love each other, your people will love you too."

"You speak from experience." Evie murmured, and Elsa grinned widely, showing teeth as white as the new fallen snow.

Evie felt, underneath all her makeup and glamours and pretty clothes, that she was a wolf in sheep's clothing. A witch was a dangerous creature, kin to the fae, and prone to deals and hidden secrets. Witches were blood and bone and sharp teeth in the darkness. They all went by nicknames, because if someone had your real name, they would use it against you, and not just through magic.

In Auradon, magic was tame. They used it in their technology, and caged it in the Isle. They pretended people like Genevieve Grimhilde didn't exist, people who had magic running through their veins and under their skin like lifeblood. And even though she pretended she didn't, even Fairy Godmother went by an alias.

Fairy Godmother. FG. Headmistress.

Mal had known her real name, because it was whispered to her by her mother back on the Isle. As they shook hands with the old woman, and she looked from Mal to Evie with a kind of knowing, Evie resolved to make her their next target.

Brigid Fairweather was named after the Celtic goddess of light and the hearth. The Christians called her Saint Brigid, and in the deep corners of the Bayou, they called her Mama Brigitte. Not the Fairy Godmother, of course, but the figure she'd been named for. Headmistress Fairweather was Auradon's only magic consultant, because she was the most powerful of "the good ones", and the only one Adam trusted to work magic in his realm.

If she were to suddenly lose her magic, it wouldn't seem strange for Ben to appoint a new consultant. While Mal was disliked by many of the nobles, she was adored by the commoners. Auradon's darling, the girl who slew a dragon for the sake of her new people. She was more than Ben's girlfriend now - most of the kingdom saw her as their future queen. It wouldn't be strange at all to appoint her the new guardian of magic. And then the changes could come.

Mal and Evie told each other this, through glances and whispers, and through the gentle pressure of their hands, held. Ben hadn't learned this secret language of theirs, but he would, in time.

All together, the funeral was a bore, but the food was good, and Mal knew where to go from here. She even had a faint idea of where to start.

When the coven assembled afterwards, they found Mal in the midst of making a new seal on the floor of the hidden room in purple shimmering paint. There was the symbol for Morrigan, her patron, and the triple goddess who symbolized magic on the Moors (Evie called her Freja, and Ginny called her Diana, and Hadie called her Hecate, but it was all the same goddess).

"So what's this new ritual for?" Carlos asked almost cautiously from the sidelines as Mal furiously measured out lines and symbols, and marked the rough draft with chalk before she painted it.

"I'm invoking the judgement of the goddess. If ever a person betrayed their gift and sinned against magic itself, it would be that stupid old woman."

No one had to ask Mal who she meant. She'd been complaining about Fairy Godmother ever since they first arrived, and everyone had felt the rate bubbling inside them when she misgendered Hadie, or implied that Evie was a whore, or made Mal feel like a bug under a microscope. How she was perpetually trying to set Carlos up with Jane, despite the fact that neither of them wanted it. How Carlos was terrified to tell her he couldn't ever like Jane, because he wasn't attracted to girls. She'd made her own daughter feel like a speck of dust, for fuck's sake, and Mal was done with it. Done.

That said, no one had ever tried something like this before, and there was no guarantee it would work.

"And if the goddess doesn't revoke her magic?" Evie asked quietly. She was still the only one who could get away with questioning Mal, and only because she was Mal's guiding star.

(The only conscience she'd ever listen to.)

"Then I'll kill her. Nothing is going to stand in our way, E." Mal retorted softly. "You aren't going soft, are you?"

"No." The witch smiled slowly. "Just making sure we're on the same page."

"Is the circle going to be ready for a ritual tonight?" Ginny asked, examining her nails nonchalantly, as if she couldn't care either way.

"Not tonight," Mal answered, and she brushed purple hair out of her eyes with a hand covered in chalk dust. Everyone could tell she was very occupied, but no one mentioned it. No one had ever seen Mal look so feverish,

"If you're busy, and it won't be ready by tonight, I'm gonna go summon an elder god to help with my French homework." Carlos said casually, and that got Mal's attention for a moment. Only a moment though. She got back to work and replied without really looking at Carlos.

"You mean the Marquis Forneus, right?" She asked, still sketching. "Along with knowing all the world's languages, doesn't he have the power to give someone a good reputation?"

"Yes...?" Carlos answered breathlessly. He'd been sort of kidding about summoning a writhing mass of Eldritch tentacles to help with French, but it wasn't hard, not for someone with his bloodline.

"Mm." Mal nodded. "See if you can put in a good word for me."

"It isn't like going to the grocery store, Mal." DeVil rolled his eyes fondly. "I can't just say, 'Oh, by the way, could you pick up some fame for my home girl Mal while you're out?'"

"Why not?" Evie giggled.

"Multiple reasons," Carlos muttered. "But mostly because he can't confer wishes to anyone but the one who summoned him, and the reason I can summon him is because my biological father is like, his demon boss or something."

"It was worth a try." Mal shrugged, and Carlos shook his head with quiet amusement.

"I might be able to summon Forneus by a coven-centric ritual and use my power like a solomonic shield generator..." The boy mused, but no one was listening anymore, as tended to happen when he started talking magical theory. Jay, however, looked at him with loving eyes.

"Did you even understand a word of what I said?" Carlos scoffed, but there was no heat in the words, and Jay smiled and shook his head.

"Not a fucking word."

It was, however, no secret at all that hearing Carlos talk brilliant nonsense was a huge turn-on for Jay. Freddie teased them mercilessly when Jay realized they were in his room, and feverishly shoved everyone out.

Everyone of course, except for Mal and Evie, but they were in the soundproofed room, and wouldn't be out for hours.

Which was more than enough time, Jay thought with a happy grin.


End file.
